Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton
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US drone
MQ-4C Triton, a new American drone due to enter service in 2015. It is powered by a Rolls-Royce engine, can reach an altitude of 60,000 feet and fly for 30 hours at over 350mph before it needs refueling, it says here
Otherwise known as the Global Hawk in USAF use. Can’t get worked up about these Ian. Was at Waddo’s 2010 show and they had a whole pan full of them – sorry I’d rather take photos of kittens…..:))
No, Ang is saying much the same. I added this because US drones are in the news at the moment. Me, I love them! The history of experiments in remote controlled aircraft goes way back. One crash site photo on here (United States Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator 63934) refers to how Lt Joe Kennedy, brother of JFK was killed in another accident while piloting a robot Liberator from Dunkeswell as part of Operation Aphrodite – remote controlled explosives packed Liberators that had to be manned to get off the ground, then control was taken over by the crew of another bomber to fly the remote controlled bomb to a German target after the skeleton crew baled out. However Lt Kennedy’s Liberator exploded over Suffolk, 20 minutes into the flight. Another peculier detail is that the death of the brother of the man who would become President was witnessed by Colonel Elliot Roosevelt, the son of the then current President, who was filming the operation from a de Havilland Mosquito.
how absolutely, well, terrifying.
sometimes you gotta wonder about ‘progress’.
Thanks Ang. This has no weapons however, it is a maritime surveillance ‘unmanned aerial vehicle.’
Ae, cheers – it’s not the weapons that scare me, it’s the concept of ‘surveillance’ – all good if used in a positive way, but the negatives seem well, Orwellian? [if that’s the term, you’d know].
Aye very Big Brother!
We did have a great day for Wadd didn’t we?
I’m firmly sat on the fence with drones; they don’t interest me to look at and it is great that they can be sent into hot areas with no risk to the crew. But, I have had a surveillance drone above me, it wasn’t after me 😉 it was a very uncomfortable and unpleasant feeling.
It was a good day.
You reckon there was a drone at Withernsea…?
😉
If there was I didn’t see it!
that’s the scary thing 😉