Quote:
Originally Posted by Seahawk
I know you worked with the Air Force so what I wrote was for others. There is a lot of misconceptions on unmanned aircraft.
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I don't know that much about unmanned aircraft. I do remember that a few years ago I stated that they take fewer personnel to operate and was surprised when you said no, they take more.
If the development process you go through is anything like what I did it is painstaking and often frustrating. We spent thousands of man hours fretting over the wing skin material for the C-17. There were factions concerned with weight savings, factions touting cost, factions worried about corrosion resistance. I left before the made a final decision, but the amount of time spent testing and discussing the tiniest changes in aluminum alloys was unbelievable.
Standing back and looking at it 40 years later I can see saving a pound of weight on that one system added to a pound here and there saved in other systems spread out over the millions of hours they spend in the air adds up.