Navy drone completes first ever unmanned carrier landing

JLocke

Interesting article here. Claims that "The X-47B drone made history Wednesday as the first robot to land itself on the moving flight deck of an aircraft carrier at sea",

Navy drone completes first ever unmanned carrier landing

PJAllen

Gosh, there must be a medal headed someone's way for that.

Yippee!

P.E. Not unlike these
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/13/16952708-panetta-announces-medal-for-drone-pilots?lite
"participation awards" for Millennials.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

'Kinda makes me wonder what happened to all the carrier-launched drones before that one. Just ditched at sea?

-Phil

ElectricAye

JLocke wrote: »

..."The X-47B drone made history Wednesday as the first robot to land itself on the moving flight deck of an aircraft carrier at sea"...

Nah, I'm pretty sure the State of Connecticut already achieved that back in 1901. In fact, here's a photo to prove it:



And even more evidence to back it up:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/travel/wright-brothers-first-flight-fight

jones

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

'Kinda makes me wonder what happened to all the carrier-launched drones before that one. Just ditched at sea?

-Phil

I think this was typical. IIRC some of the old drones were considered to be disposable.

LoopyByteloose

Well....
While China builds up its navy with a fleet of aircraft carriers staffed with thousands of sailors...
the next generation of US aircraft carriers might not only have drones, but a crew of 20 or so.

So where does one find a good career these days?

ElectricAye

Loopy Byteloose wrote: »

...

So where does one find a good career these days?

Good question. There are two interesting articles related to this topic in the same issue of Technology Review:

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515806/the-world-as-free-fire-zone/

I love this quote: "...By the fall of 2009, the Air Force was training more drone-joystick pilots than airplane pilots. It was the start of a new era..."