QF-16 Flies as Target for First Time
The QF-16 has been in testing for some time, but just recently flew its first official sortie as an aerial target for a test surface to air missile.
Video from Boeing:
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Unmanned QF-16 Takes to the Air
Update: Now covered at AF.mil and the Air Force Times.
Forget Google’s driverless car. Boeing made a pilotless fighter.
In what is at times both amazing and creepy, an F-16 modified into a drone configuration — now designated QF-16 — took to the air last week for the first time with no human inside it:
Search Begins for New Air Force One
The Department of Defense has apparently begun the search for a replacement for the Air Force VC-25A — the Boeing 747-200 better known as “Air Force One” when the President of the United States is onboard. (There are actually two similarly configured 747s.)
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center on Sept. 9 released a Sources Sought Synopsis, a survey asking potential contractors about their ability to create a suitable replacement to the VC-25, the modified Boeing 747-200 that has carried presidents since 1990.
The program for replacement actually began several years ago, and there were rumors that Airbus would offer an A380 — though the spectre of the American Presidential airplane being a “foreign” aircraft stoked much criticism. The replacement is almost certainly going to be a modern Boeing aircraft, though the contractor who modifies the aircraft may yet be another company.
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Test Pilot First “Passenger” in Single-Seat QF-16
Boeing Test Pilot Jason Clements recently announced to his “fellow Viper drivers” that the beginning of an era is at hand — and the F-16 community will soon see their planes take to the air without pilots.
Clements is part of a team that has been converting F-16s to QF-16s, or pilotless drones. He recently rode in the cockpit as a passenger for the entire sortie, never once touching the controls.
The QF-4 has long filled this role — so long, in fact, they need to be replaced. This will apparently be the first time the US Air Force has turned an aircraft into drones while it was still fielded operationally. In other words, it is conceivable that an F-16 pilot will get to shoot down a QF-16 — a feat heretofore unheard of.
The first “no pilot” QF-16 sortie is scheduled for Friday the 13th, next week.
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F-22 Builders Settle Lawsuit with Pilot’s Widow
Anna Haney, the widow of F-22 Raptor pilot Capt Jeff Haney, filed a lawsuit in March against the contractors responsible for building the F-22: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Honeywell, and Pratt and Whitney. They have reportedly settled out of court in a sealed result:
According to court documents, Anna Haney, wife of pilot Capt. Jeff Haney, agreed to a binding settlement…after a meeting Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The settlement terms Read more
Annapolis Beats USAFA in Aircraft Design Competition
The US Naval Academy at Annapolis won a Boeing-sponsored inter-service academy competition to design a futuristic aircraft cockpit:
The competition, now in its second year, required each academy’s team to design the cockpit of an aircraft for a mission nearly 30 years Read more
F-22 Pilot’s Widow Sues Lockheed, Boeing
The widow of Capt Jeff Haney, killed in the November 2010 crash of an F-22 in Alaska, is suing the contractors who built the plane — which includes Lockheed, Boeing, Honeywell, and Pratt & Whitney.
It states that the aircraft was sold with known defective on-board oxygen generating system, bleed air system and other life support systems. “The life support systems of the F-22 Raptor aircraft were and are completely and wholly inadequate,” the lawsuit states.
In the mishap that keeps coming back to the Air Force, the IG recently Read more
Commercial Pilot Jobs to Takeoff?
The US military pays certain career fields “bonuses” and other incentive pays for a fairly simple reason: to keep people in the military who would otherwise make far more money outside of it. Some have complained, then, when the economy turns: For example, when the airline industry took a dive, some questioned what reason there could be for giving military pilots incentive pay.
The Air Force Times claims the “commercial pilot job market” is now set “for a boom,” however.
After nearly a four-year drought of openings, airlines are predicting they will hire more pilots in the next decade than they ever have. Aircraft maker Boeing forecasts a need for 466,650 more commercial pilots by 2029 — an average of 23,300 a year.
They also noted that changes in the Air Force culture may affect Read more