Top five aeronautical stories of 2013 (all about the drones.)

Here is a few I personally like. Two of em' are drones. One is manned or unmanned. This is just what they want/Let, us know about? As, I stated in other threads (I love new tech!) the drones nefarious reputation aside... Their really amazing. All the aircraft listed, for that matter.


X-51A Waverider

The fourth time they tested this, hypersonic drone achieved the longest scramjet-powered hypersonic flight hitting a top speed of Mach 5.1 (which is 2,924 knots, 3,366 mph and 5,417 km/h using SI standard conversion). It's Dropped from a B-52H bomber out of Edwards Air Force Base in California, the unmanned craft flew at top speed for three and a half minutes before it made a controlled dive into the Pacific Ocean after six minutes of flight. Gives new meaning to riding waves.


X-47B

The X-47B, is trying to steal some fighter pilots jobs. On May 14, the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator (UCAS-D) took to the air from the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) off the coast of Virginia, making it the first autonomous unmanned aircraft to make a catapult launch from an aircraft carrier.

Shot off the deck of the Nimitz-class carrier by a steam catapult like an operational carrier-based aircraft. The jet-propelled drone executed several low-altitude carrier approaches to demonstrate its ability to operate in a carrier environment, then the X, flew across Chesapeake Bay and landed at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Waveriders, Carrier Drones, The navy will have some more activity to manage.


SR-72

The SR-72, is Waverider on steroids. Where Waverider straps under the wing of a bomber and only fires up after a rocket motor boosts it to supersonic speeds, the SR-72 will be as large as its predecessor with a length of over a hundred feet (30 m) and will use a conventional jet turbine engine to bring it up to supersonic speed before its hypersonic ramjet kicks in.

Crazy Cool! It will be manned or unmanned... Take your pic.

If the SR-72 becomes operation by its projected date of 2030, Lockheed sees it as a reconnaissance plane or a platform for firing hypersonic missiles while already flying at hypersonic speeds. And without a pilot, INSANE manuevers, tight turns, amazing climbs....

There's more from the Source .

WoW! It's dead in here. The drones are cool though.

reply to post by C21H30O2I


If only I had the money to buy one...

These are impressive to say the least. The technology used to shrink what seems to be a fighter-jet based propulsion system down to a drone size is very interesting. What I'd give to see one in person. Well, besides enlisting and being on the carrier itself.

Nice pictures.

reply to post by havok


Hey Havok, thanks for stopping in. Yeah, hypersonic, scram jet tek in a drone impressive! I, too would love to check these out up close, in person!