Saturday, February 28, 2009

Shrinking Economy? Shrink your Air force


Budgets are shrinking, why not planes? I saw these little remote control jets buzzing around at an air show recently and I thought to myself, that’s the way of the future. I know the US have predator drones but they don’t look like planes. These things are miniature versions of the real thing and when they were airborne you couldn’t tell if they were miniature planes or real ones just a bit further away. It would be the same for your enemy wouldn’t it?
Small planes mean small runways, smaller hangers and smaller amounts of fuel. Those savings ad up. And your Naval air force can build much smaller aircraft carriers.
But it’s not just about money. It’s also about stealth. Would these little guys show up on enemy radar? Doubt it. And imagine if you were in a dogfight with a plane this small. It would be hard to see?
Everything cool is getting smaller. ipods, Kate Winslet, why not air forces?
Because these planes are remote controlled you don’t need pilots. So no more testosterone laden blokes high fiving each other on the runway after they’ve buzzed the tower. But speaking of Top Gun, Tom Cruise is a little guy. He might actually fit in one of these planes. Maybe for air forces that still want that personal touch they could put tiny pilots in the planes. Midgets perhaps. Or monkeys. Maybe all those monkeys that went up into space in the 60’s. They’re probably all sitting around getting fat trying to work out how to recapture the thrills of their glory days. Bet they would work for next to nothing just for the chance to get airborne again.