Originally Posted by
Commando Cody
Lone Wolf:
I for one think your "revolver" idea is really clever, although eight missiles might be a tight fit. The big bugaboo would be weight, since Army has tight limit on acceptable gross weight for FARA.
The idea could be scaled down a bit to a pair of 'three packs' (one for each side) that revolve: top two un armed, bottom one armed, so more of a 'triangle' than a revolver, if they have to meet an internal weight bogey.
Aha, finally see what they are up to with the Invictus/360 sliding armament racks, from the link.
Can anyone explain to me why 360/Invictus/Bell FARA has two pilots? (Or pilot/gunner)
I would think that the automation, helmets, and mission packages developed for a variety of aircraft over last 30 years could be modded and integrated into this weapons system and allow it to be flown/operated by a single pilot. (Like an A-7, F-35, F-16, and so on).
Comments on that?
Did the Army write a hard requirement for 'must be a two seat aircraft' into this future system?
The impression I get from the pictures at The Drive link is that the wings are intended to be lift producing devices, not stub wings for weapons stations.
As depicted, they do not look to be adjustable in pitch (like the Black Hawk Horizontal stab) but basically wings similar to a fixed wing aircraft. And it occurs to me that they might include fuel capacity / tanks that cannot be down in the hull where the missiles / weapons slide in and out on that rack.
An interesting hybrid, to be sure.