Closer than you Fink me Hearties
Long-Range Unmanned Bomber, 7E7 Airliner Both Promise Major Benefits, Condit Says
By Lee Ewing
An unmanned bomber could offer advantages over manned aircraft for long-range strike missions, Boeing's chairman suggested Feb. 6 in an interview.
Boeing, in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, is developing the X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle technology demonstration system. The X-45A demonstrator aircraft first flew May 22, 2002.
An armed version of the aircraft is envisioned as being used first for the dangerous job of attacking enemy air defenses, which has been handled by manned aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-16CJ fighter-bomber. The X-45 also could be used as a strike fighter.
While he is pleased with the progress of the company's unmanned combat air vehicle program to date, Boeing's chairman and chief executive officer, Phil Condit, told Aviation Week Group editors in Washington, D.C., that achieving the transformational potential of the UCAV will require steps to integrate it effectively with other nodes in a network-centric system.
The promise offered by unmanned combat air vehicles is exciting, he said, as industry and government officials consider their possible uses.
"Do I think about unmanned bombers? On really big, long missions, am I employing people in the best way to put them into a vehicle and have them sit there for 24 or 40 hours, if in fact I can ... do that as an unmanned task?
"I think there's a lot of people thinking pretty hard about what are the tasks that best conform to an unmanned vehicle."
If the task were initial strike against enemy air defenses, he said, "I think the answer is probably yes," a UCAV would be appropriate.
While development of UCAVs is promising, it also is challenging, Condit said.
Condit said he doesn't expect the UCAV market to move faster, in part because doctrine must first be developed for using UCAVs as part of a network-centric system.
Developing doctrine on which tasks are best for unmanned vehicles and which for manned ones is a fundamental requirement, he said.
Launching the 7E7
Turning to commercial aircraft, Condit noted that Boeing is working through design and specifications for its planned 7E7, an all-new, super-efficient, mid-size airliner, saying proposals should be ready relatively soon for airlines to review.
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