Military Researchers Design Real-life 'Transformer' Plane

From Mashable

UK aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems have taken the wraps off several concepts it envisions as possible tools for the military in the decades to come — and if these designs are any guide, future battlefields are going to look like the set of a science fiction movie.

The most interesting of the concepts is called the Transformer, a stealth aircraft that's actually composed of three airplanes — a large, diamond-shaped model, and two smaller flanking planes.

The target date for this bad boy is 2040 so don't go placing your preorders just yet


If that's not your thing then how about this one... A plane that can repair itself while in flight.


this was pretty cool. an aircraft that can (using a 3d printer) Make it's own UAV's on the fly.



Okay so yeah these are all concepts... But BAE Systems is a major player in the military contractor biz--- so don't be all that surprised to see some of these ideas starting to trickle out in the not so distant future

its pretty much like the thread posted yesterday

What's Scarier than a combat drone?

sowwy

Whats the point of three planes in one? Surely it just means one missile can take out all three!

originally posted by: Indigent
its pretty much like the thread posted yesterday

What's Scarier than a combat drone?

sowwy

Well if my brother-in-law were in the lead plane and does something stupid as normal...
than I can just peel-off and pretend I didn't just see him fly loop-de-loops around the good year blimp.

Okay, okay... I'll be serious... Why three war planes instead of just one?
because it costs more... get it now?

originally posted by: VoidHawk
Whats the point of three planes in one? Surely it just means one missile can take out all three!

If one plane was damaged, it could be detached and/or repaired. But if they had an early warning system, the planes could separate until the threat disappeared.

a reply to: HardCorps

This makes one assume that they've got more interesting things to develop, but they feel the need to somehow get a little name recognition at being forward thinking.

But, you know, you can't but notice that their playing around with these concepts are all solidly plain (pun intended), old, ordinary aircraft. --Where's the exotic stuff?

Or that's right, somebody has to be building the triangles, right?

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: VoidHawk
Whats the point of three planes in one? Surely it just means one missile can take out all three!

If one plane was damaged, it could be detached and/or repaired. But if they had an early warning system, the planes could separate until the threat disappeared.

But when this plain is due to be flying it wont be a missile, it'll be a laser or something similar, and there's no early warning system for beam weaponry.
Anyway, whats the advantage of three planes in one, apart from a small fuel saving? And that saving would be lost in the costs of the tech needed to allow the planes to mate together. Am I missing something?

a reply to: Aliensun

I think they hope to break into the aircraft market, personally.
right now BAE makes and sells a lot of wheeled Armor vehicles.
At the recent Paris airshow they tried to build some buzz over a new UAV but it was no different then everyone else's UAV.

so what's a big time international arms dealer gotta to do to stand out these days?

a reply to: HardCorps

THIS ALL SCREAMS AGENDA 21 !!!!

a reply to: HardCorps

BAE = brittish aerospace - they are the UKs largest aircraft manufacturer - their AFV division is DIVERSIFICATION [ they bought Vickers ]