British air force tests unmanned jetliner

Published 30 November 2006

Two-hour flight shows off Qinetic’s UAV command and control interface; the next step is to to fly the jetliner, a fighter jet, and a fleet of UAVs simulateously without stepping into a cockpit

Look, Ma, no hands! A British air force pilot has succesfully navigated a BAC 1-11 twin engine jetliner using only a UAV Command and Control Interface (UAVCCI) — part of a test by the Ministry of Defence and Hampshire, UK-based Qinetiq to see if the UAVCCI could soon be used to control fleets of UAVs from the cockpit of a single fighter jet. Under the law, the pilot did have to sit in the plane (in case of emergency an additional crew manned the cockpit and handled the take-off and landing), but he took his place in the back and interacted only with the interface during the two hour flight. “The big burning question at the MoD is how to operate UAVs in attack missions in the future,” says Kevin Williams, project manager at Qinetiq. “We wanted to see if a fast-jet pilot, flying a Tornado perhaps, could control a pack of four UAVs in deep, target attack situations while still doing his own job.”

Next March, the UAVCCI will face an even tougher challenge when the pilot will perform a similar test, only this time from the cockpit of a Tornado fighter. In that sophisticated trial, the pilot not only will have to fly the Tornado and several simulated UAVs simultaneously, but he will also have to control the BAC airliners as well. “This technology is getting us closer and closer to actually controlling a fleet of UAVs from a military aircraft,” said Bruno Esposito, chairman of the Paris, France-based trade group Euro UAV. “It makes the things you can afford to lose - the UAVs - more expendable, because you cannot afford to lose a pilot or an expensive platform like a fighter.”

-read more in Paul Mark’s New Scientist report