100th F-22 Raptor delivered to U.S. Air Force

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Letum

Prahaps, but planes where doing 200mph back in the 1920s!

I hear ya - but those planes weren't designed to loiter. Most were point A to B or racing versions. This tiny predator stays up there for 8 hours straight! The monster GLobal Hawk can stay on station for 24 hours - not including transit time.

-S

[geetrue]

They might have a hard time of shooting down a little drone right now ...

but in just ten more years and a whole lot of money (is 5 billion dollars from heron trade enough?) they could shoot down a whole satellite.

All they have to do is take out one with a mobile launcher and run.

You can see a satellite with the naked eye ... what can modern electronics do?

Does that sound too James Bondish?

[Letum]

Im suprised no terrorists have made a cruise missile yet.
I am 99% sure I could make a simple pulse jet missile with a fair payload and range in a year with a budget of less than $ half million with out buying anything that would cause suspicion. :hmm:

[Chock]

Im suprised no terrorists have made a cruise missile yet.
I am 99% sure I could make a simple pulse jet missile with a fair payload and range in a year with a budget of less than $ half million with out buying anything that would cause suspicion. :hmm:

Presumably meaning a missile along the lines of the Fieseler 103?
Trouble is, the Fi 103 was a lot more complicated than people generally realise, it had numerous gyroscopes and pressure chambers inside it as part of its autopilot system. And even then, the cheapness of its construction materials often led to notorious innacuracy.

Typically the cause of this was the pulse jet burning holes through the side of the tailpipe, effectively vectoring the thrust enough to overcome the autopilot's abilities to make enough corrections to keep it on course. Which is why several of them hit my home town on Christmas Eve 1944, when they were actually aimed at another town around thirty miles away! That's quite a big miss.

Any missile of this nature would certainly need an autopilot too, and that is not cheap to do. If it was, they'd have done it. Not to mention the fact that something like that would be easily countered by standing air patrols, in fact you'd probably be doing an air force a favour by launching them, as it would be good target practice for their pilots.

Chock

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Letum

Im suprised there isn't a remotely piloted rocket aircraft.
A little like a remotely piloted tomahawk missile with survelance equipment and missiles attached. :hmm:
~200mph is very, very slow.

"Rocket" no, jet yes it was called LIghtning bug.

Lighting bug was a modified jet powed target drone used in Vietnam they were used for recon, locating SAM sites, acting as decoys althogh none were armed and they were automus for the most part.

[Lafferty]

wow i never recalled hearing about them pretty intresting.