OT Drones, or unmanned aircraft

[micky]

OT Drones, or unmanned aircraft

Heard on Kojo Nnambi that unmanned aircraft for commericial (and private?) use will be legal next year, and got to thinking.....

In a regular plane, the pilot can look over his left shoulder and see what's back there, and if he adjusts his right sideview mirror right, he can see what's back there on the right side. He can turn the plane slightly and see what is around him 360^ He can lift his head and through a clear canopy, he can see what is above him.

Is any of this true with unmanned planes. I have the feeling the pilot can see straight ahead, and if it has a down-pointed camera, straight down. Am I piloting the Hy-un-dry of unmanned planes?

[notbob]

It would think you would have as many views as the number of vid cams yer UAV can hump around. How many do you want? Worried about tailgaters?

nb

[trader4]

He can see to the left and slightly behind, but not what's farther back or directly behind.

and if he adjusts his right sideview mirror right,

What right sideview mirror? Might find one on some plane that someone has added, but I don't think it's common.

He can turn the

No. The unmanned plane can't turn 360. It just flies straight forever. To get back to where it took off from it has to have enough fuel to circle the earth.

=A0I have the feeling the

No, more likely you're trolling.

[micky]

Like they have on the F-16.

Oh.

No, I really wonder about this.

[gregz]

Back 40 years ago I was in a unmanned plane group in the army. Those flew about 200 mph. If you let it fly, it would go in a straight line by gyroscope. If it lost signal, motor would shut off and chute deployed.

Other jet aircraft were also flown nearby. Radar would be used to fly them. Pretty much clear desert range.

We flew for Vulcan training. 100 round per second shells. Sometimes they could never hit the plane and we would fake a hit. RCAT fort bliss, mcgregor range nm.

Greg

[G. Morgan]

I think the mission flight is pre-programmed, and mostly on autopilot. The operator locates and destroys the target.

[Stormin Mormon]

After watching the train movie "unstoppable", I'm glad there is a redundant engineer.

movie was a bit spooky. It had a lot of the ingredients of an all time hit movie (in my view). Starts off the movie wtih a bunch of conflict. The train takes the attention, and a couple of unlikely comrades rapidly decide to act together for the good of all.

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.

When we think of it, we notice fully automatic trains still carry drivers.

[G. Morgan]

There are many passenger jets that can taxi, take-off, fly to the destination and land itself, and have the ability to auto taxi.

A modern 747 can do all that, and its computer is preloaded with every possible landing runway in the world that can accommodate the large plane.

[dennisgauge]

They're "legal" NOW, as in there are no laws against them.

The FAA is trying to regulate them so they aren't flying willy-nilly in the airspace with people-carrying airplanes. Some idiot will inevitably decide it'd be fun to take a joyride through the pattern at a major municipal airport, thinking nothing bad will happen, and inadvertently take down an A380 full of fuel and passengers. They think regulations will stop that.

Depends on the purpose of the airplane. Some only have forward-facing cameras. Some have an array of cameras. Some have a camera on a gimbal in the airplane that follows the pilot's head movements.

These regulations are going to hurt the guy with a toy plane in his backyard the most. The FAA loves to write vague, sweeping regulations, and right now what they want to regulate includes any sort of remotely- piloted aircraft at any altitude.