"According to the Project on Government Oversight, the Predator "cannot be launched in adverse weather, including any visible moisture such as rain, snow, ice, frost or fog; nor can it takeoff or land in crosswinds of greater than 17 knots.""
I was a little disappointed that article was about a pilot flying a plane from the ground and not about a plane that flew itself.
Having a human in the loop does bring to mind some fun possibilities though. Imagine one pilot managing several planes at once only interceding at times too out of the norm for the autopilot. Or perhaps imagine a network of Uber pilots all over the world managing planes in their spare time (1).
Either way unmanned aircraft certainly would have made Castaway a much different movie (2).
AFAIK, the technology isn't really anything new (see drones), but I took the article to mean that the "breakthrough" was in doing this safely within civil airspace. My use of scare quotes is really just because it's the first time (in the UK, don't know about elsewhere); it's more of a milestone than a breakthrough.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 41.2 ms ] threadEven larger military drones, such as the well known Predator, have severely limited crosswind components.
http://middleeast.about.com/od/usmideastpolicy/a/predator-ua...
"According to the Project on Government Oversight, the Predator "cannot be launched in adverse weather, including any visible moisture such as rain, snow, ice, frost or fog; nor can it takeoff or land in crosswinds of greater than 17 knots.""
Having a human in the loop does bring to mind some fun possibilities though. Imagine one pilot managing several planes at once only interceding at times too out of the norm for the autopilot. Or perhaps imagine a network of Uber pilots all over the world managing planes in their spare time (1).
Either way unmanned aircraft certainly would have made Castaway a much different movie (2).
(1) Whimsy not position.
(2) Two hours of a camera-shot of an empty beach.
this just feels like a video game basically. all i need to do is bring out my xbox controls and i can do exactly the same thing in my video games.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales_Watchkeeper_WK450
Are these being used in the UK for civil surveillance?
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2015/10/02/boxed-up-ba...