Eclipse, I was intrigued to see the underlined emphasis in your underlined assertion, "the tech already exists", hoping that you'd provided a link to evidence of same.".
those so called self driving cars are killing people.
GA continues to shrink.....
Not buying that - apples to oranges comparison for one, for another those so called self driving cars are killing people.
Show me an off the shelf, TRL 9 UAS SAR system that's ready for CAP to take over and fly as volunteers.
Quote from: Spam on October 02, 2016, 06:11:45 PMthose so called self driving cars are killing people.Not commenting about the other stuff, but there has only been 1 death associated with the "self-driving"/"autopilot" Tesla car. Even then, evidence seems to point that the semi-truck was mostly at fault for turning in front of the Tesla.
That's what human drivers do (you and I do it every day, when someone pulls into their blind spots without checking).
Recall how excited CAP was about Hyperspectral Imaging, and our wonderful new Gippsland aircraft? Yeah... lets do that again.
For SAR/DR missions, we've not done the systems engineering front end analysis, nor the functional allocations and information analysis, let alone the FMECA, and you're claiming "the tech already exists", and we should start investing in it. Were we to submit a POM through CAP-USAF for such a pipe dream, we'd be laughed at.
My takeaway: its pointless to pursue a Quixotic argument about engineering realities with a powerful ego who seems unassailably convinced that engineering is easy, all the answers are cheap and already solved and risk free, and who thinks that our obvious failure with a developmental and unproven system is not applicable to his belief that CAP can field an as-yet undeveloped UAV SAR system within a handful of years. Unproven, not developed UAV SAR systems, for which "Google it" is the reference. Yeah.
When the AF decides to start retiring planes and not replacing them, then I'll know the writing is on the wall.
Quote from: etodd on October 03, 2016, 02:17:34 AMWhen the AF decides to start retiring planes and not replacing them, then I'll know the writing is on the wall.When Congress stops giving the Air Force money to buy us planes, it will be too late to be coming up with plan B.
Really? Considering how old some of the planes in the fleet are, I'd say we'd last quite a while after that.
Any ideas for Senior only Squadrons in 20 years, 50? What for them once the planes are gone? And the aging pilot population dwindles?
When drones are so easy to use and cheap that every agency has them and we are no longer called for SAR and Aerial Photography ... what will CAP become