A New Fighter for $25,000 ?

[Fonsini]

The story of Bob Diemert, the somewhat eccentric Canadian who wanted the Canadian Air Force to dump their CF-18s in favor of the "Defender" - his heavily armored piston engine "fighter".

I recall seeing the original documentary and found it fascinating. The problem for me is that the swarm concept of ultra low-cost fighter aircraft is all well and good until you have to find someone willing to actually fly them in combat.

Bring back any memories for anyone ?

How to build a fighter airplane for $25,000 or is this guy crazy? - NFB/blog (http://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2009/07/27/how-to-fighter-airplane-defender-bob-diemert/)

[dagenham]

Ah the man who thinks Home Depot and Sears are low cost certified suppliers of aircraft spares.

There is a reason why it is so cheap........ Irrespective of its capabilities.

Google his name and zero if you want a giggle

[CoffmanStarter]

A similar story to that of the 'Luscombe P3 Rattler Strike' ... Who remembers that one then ?

[Martin the Martian]

I remember seeing the documentary when C4 aired it; taped it on a VHS cassette which is lurking somewhere in the loft.

I thought he was onto something until the thought that maybe he was thinking of a helicopter came to mind. Either way, even I knew that his design, if it ever flew, had about as much chance of serious consideration as a Wright Flyer.

[Haraka]

'Luscombe P3 Rattler Strike' ... Who remembers that one then ?

At that time I was involved in a project to put a light machine gun or hyper velocity rockets on a lightweight autogiro. The "Rattler" was a source of some amusement, but it showed that others were approaching a possible requirement along another route.

[drustsonoferp]

If you take the swarm concept and apply it to very cheaply produced pilotless aircraft, then the concept could be rather successful.

How many Typhoons do you think you need to hit on the ground after saturating local GBAD in order to make a significant impact? If you don't care much about losses, have sufficient weight of numbers that a decent percentage can afford to fail en route, or be destroyed en route, what then?

A suitable craft could be made for considerably less than $25K. Youtube is full of footage filmed by automated aircraft able to track moving targets on the ground, e.g. skateboarders, people on motorbikes. Applying the same techniques to attacking military targets cannot be far off.

[Lima Juliet]

We already have unmanned aircraft for saturating air defences - the Tactical Air Launched Decoy (TALD) was first used in Gulf War 1 if I recall correctly?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/ADM-141_TALD_and_ADM-141C_ITALD_decoy_missiles_on_display.jpg/320px-ADM-141_TALD_and_ADM-141C_ITALD_decoy_missiles_on_display.jpg

As for 'The Defender', I've seen better designs flown by Dick Dastardley and Muttley. I couldn't help thinking that the documentary was more like some sick mockumentary...:=

LJ

[drustsonoferp]

I don't thnk there is anything like TALD left anymore. I spent some time trying to get rid of the last of them at the end of Harrier when, like many other things, they just turned up, and no one had any instructions on how to dispose of them, including the batteries and party popper sized explosive on the wing release system.

The difference I'm trying to make is that we launched TALD from an expensive aircraft, in order to make an attack using an expensive aircraft more likely to succeed. It may be possible to dispense with the expensive aircraft element in an aviation parallel to USS Cole. Why fight expensive forces on their terms when you can make your own (or buy your own) cheap UAVs and take out very expensive assets on the ground?

[ShotOne]

If we decideded to buy that exact aircraft using our present procurement process they would cost at least a £million each