Friday, July 27, 2012

Zombie allusions: They just keep on coming-landing Hornets on aircraft carriers

http://militarytimes.com/blogs/scoopdeck/2012/07/26/zombie-plane-lands-on-truman/


Zombie plane lands on Truman




An F/A-18 D Hornet with unmanned aircraft software on board took over the plane’s controls like a zombie virus seizing the undead. With the plane in its clutches, it safely  landed the Hornet on the carrier Harry S. Truman.  It essentially amounted to a hands free landing.
The trap wasn’t as nefarious as a zombie invasion, but it may gobble up aviation billets – it was  the latest test of the Navy’s drone technology used by the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air Demonstration program. The technology was a version of the code that’s used on the X-47B that’s been reconfigured for testing on a Hornet. It’s the brains behind unmanned aviation, and instead of a pilot controlling the plane as it takes off and lands, a computer system takes over – hence the “zombie” monicker bestowed by the Scoop Deck’s 100 percent official, non-reversible authority.

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