Taranis flies

In an interesting twist it turns out the taxi tests took place in the UK in broad daylight, in a location plane spotters have snapped dozens of pictures of tests, and no one noticed.

reply to post by Zaphod58


So it's realy a top secret plane

reply to post by Zaphod58


Could they conduct a test of that nature under the cover of darkness?

reply to post by Sammamishman


Sure. All they do is taxi starting at low speed and work up to just below takeoff speed. It checks steering and braking at different speeds.

reply to post by Zaphod58


So what does this thing do that standard UAVs don't? I cant fault the thing aesthetically she is one fine looking piece of equipment!

reply to post by andy06shake


Technically, this is called an RPAS (Remotely Piloted Air Systems), or UCAV in common parlence. Specifically, it is "stealthy" and is able to fly autonomously to target.

Although it is just a demonstrator, with the operational version some years down the line and likely to be bigger, "eviller" and possessed of an inbuilt hatred of Humans....

reply to post by stumason


Then the name is very apt!

Nice looking machine all the same, reminds me of the prototype F-117, Have Blue or something.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by andy06shake


Aye, as some have pointed out, when it comes to planes in general and stealth, there are only so many shapes to go for, so it is natural they will all look similiar.

It is a very sexy looking machine though - if it asked nicely, I definitely would

reply to post by andy06shake


It is more autonomous than any other system. It supposedly is capable of supersonic flight, but based on what we have found it doesn't appear to have enough thrust to do it.

reply to post by Zaphod58


It doesn't seam like they are super worried about keeping this program too secretive. If it was meant to be a black project tech demonstrator, no one would have ever known about it like the Bird of Prey. It might have some nifty gadgetry on it but then why let any info about it out at all?

Or do the Brits just do thing a little differently and are more open with their "cool" stuff.

reply to post by Sammamishman


I think the term "black project" is a bit heavy - most interested parties have known about Taranis for years already, this is just the public unveiling, probably more marketing than anything so we could get the French to buy in (or an acknowledgement they wouldn't be able to keep the secret).

reply to post by Sammamishman


Several tech demonstrators have been black without being truly black. The Polecat is an example. We know basic info about it and the test program without knowing real details about it.

Nice promo video from BAE of the Taranis doing flight testing.

It looks like its full of landing gear....no payload.

This is what bothers me about Asr0 and his postings.

6 years ago I diverted Eurofighter Typhoon parts to the development Taranis, probably those parts were designed into the aircraft years earlier. Last year/this year (over new year) the flights posted here took place in Woomera.

Taranis doesnt look any more capable than the UAV flying off and landing on American carriers.

So, Sammamishman has just posted a video of an aircraft much over 6 years in design and development, not in production so without an order which has been funded by government and industry just to prove UK technology.

But Astro will have you think we have space marines and other types of massive aircraft floating around the Earth.

No, no and no, UAVs are currently piloted, they can follow way points and orders, but they dont have any intellect. We are currently working on teaching them to recognise "safe" alternative landing spaces incase the have a problem (human pilots point the aircraft to sea or forres or playing field - computers dont know that).

Thats only a landing area, imagine the all the other millions of decisions a human pilot may calculate and those decisions that have never been made yet....

a reply to: IamSirDrinksalot

I wouldn't even waste my time on posts that claim that kind of stuff. food for the gullible.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
In an interesting twist it turns out the taxi tests took place in the UK in broad daylight, in a location plane spotters have snapped dozens of pictures of tests, and no one noticed.

Can this location be disclosed ?

a reply to: IamSirDrinksalot

I think it should be noted that taranis is a prototype/demonstrater.

And a somewhat public one at that.

a reply to: IamSirDrinksalot

While most of that is true, some newer UAVs have quite a bit of autonomy built in them. Like the pair of x-47s at Edwards who took off, flew a predestined route, but when they detected a threat, they talked to each other, determined which one was better suited to take the target out, and took it out. Then on the way back to base another target popped up in which again they decided which jet would engage it, and defeated it as well.

So even though were not flying newer drones like we do the predator and stuff, they still have pilots entering commands into keyboards along with a great degree of autonomity.

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

BAE Warton, Lancashire, about 20 minutes from Blackpool. It's one of bae's main development facilities and has open days so it's not very top secret.

originally posted by: boomer135
a reply to: IamSirDrinksalot

While most of that is true, some newer UAVs have quite a bit of autonomy built in them. Like the pair of x-47s at Edwards who took off, flew a predestined route, but when they detected a threat, they talked to each other, determined which one was better suited to take the target out, and took it out. Then on the way back to base another target popped up in which again they decided which jet would engage it, and defeated it as well.

So even though were not flying newer drones like we do the predator and stuff, they still have pilots entering commands into keyboards along with a great degree of autonomity.

We have a team here in Aus doing that - extending the autonomy of BAEs UAVs. I suppose that once you have a public platform, similar to what folk are saying about the F-35 sensors etc. you cant tell what is under the hood!

In response to UK black projects - I dont think the UK has the budget or ability to hide billions for flying black projects! I worked at Warton when Replica was released and most of us there had no idea. But that may be because Replica wasnt a flying aircraft, just a stealth demonstrator for ground radar and other tests so its probably the limit of UK funding for 'Black' projects. Although that said - with these UAVs I remember that BAE had flown Raven for ages and again, even working on site noone knew (well obviously some people did, but it was still a secret project).

Taranis was still pretty secret, they announced the partnerships and told people it was roughly the size of a hawk etc. but you couldnt get into the hangar where they built it, even though I had friends who worked on it, they wouldnt let others in to see it and they wouldnt talk about it.

It wasnt announced where it was testing and even though I heard from people I still know at Warton that it was coming to Aus and Woomera is just up the road (about 12 hours up the road) where the UK and others test their aircraft, I watched the press and checked the internet for weeks whilst it was here and noone it seems went to see it.

I just dont think the UK needs to have black projects that fly, its not a superpower and I suppose if they came up with great technological leaps that could protect our way of life against the mighty enemy, we would probably share it with the US who could afford it en masse. UK black projects are probably things like the Chobham Armour or Eurofighter DASS or maybe it is what is under the skin of the Taranis (or its future encarnation) what is really black obout it.