DARPA seeks manned mothership

a reply to: Zaphod58

yup. I get all sci-fi when I think of dedicated external launch and recovery stations. I have even heard of the "fly into the bay" idea much like the Navy has done with assault craft from larger ships. It is going to get really cool in the near future.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I was thinking along the lines of the upgraded techonoligy that gets seen every now and then . Same concept different century.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Big dirigible full of static. Little Dirigible park on hull like electro magnet? pull on station and release a hoard of drones like a wasps nest. "Wink out" and disappear, lay low in some valley out of sight. Let her minions do the work. If SHTF scoot fast.

I am thinking maybe it is time to unveil some skunk work projects, like saucers for a mother-ship.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
DARPA is seeking information on a large manned aircraft capable of launching and recovering small UAVs. One possible aircraft would be the C-130. C-130s have been used in the past to launch UAVs on preplanned missions, and as targets, under the designation DC-130. During Vietnam, DC-130s would launch preprogramed UAVs that would then splash down in the ocean, to be recovered by ships, where the film would either be processed, or flown to land bases and processed.

The Firebees (and a couple of others) would land by parachute. Splashing down was the least desirable method. Initially they just deployed a chute above a recovery point at or near an airfield -- MARS recovery by helicopter at DaNang or another field quickly became the prefered method, but the Navy had their own act as well. Most of the time it seemed they ended up in a rice paddy, but the idea was to pluck them from the air (mostly over land). They had bags to float if they missed for missions that recovered over the ocean, but they didn't always work. The Firebees weren't exactly watertight and saltwater does a number on electrical (and film... and metal in general). There was a good chance that you'd total out your drone with an ocean recovery (either it sinks or is damaged by sea water).

MARS Process


You can see a DC-130 in my profile pic, actually.

It's interesting that the new RFI includes recovery. I assume you'd have to use MARS -- a C-130 could do this conceivably with minimum modification. With smaller tactical UAVs, you could probably just kick them out the back like they do the SDB's and Griffins on the gunships now.

Megafortress or Vampire?

😉

a reply to: _Del_

I was just being lazy at the time of that post, but I meant that it would end up in the water, and be recovered, I wasn't meaning a literal splashdown.

This is sort of like BAE's Transformer concept, except with a manned mother ship. I think wonderful thing can be done with electromagnets now a days.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: howmuch4another

Yeah, that will be really interesting. They haven't had much luck with parasite craft in the past, but with computer control, and computing power we have today, I can see them working now.

You could do something very similar to the refueling programs. Make contact and reel it in. Seems like it would be weight/space prohibitive on a B-52 or Bone.

a reply to: Zaphod58

But again, chute or no, you really didn't want it to end up in the water at all.

The target drones for the navy and airforce were designed more for that. The Lightning Bugs weren't.

a reply to: neformore

Why not a B-1 and a B52 at first? Just how you going to land one on a B1 though. Wheres the room? But I would want a star destroyer looking thing personally.

originally posted by: expatwhite
Is there only me thinking of SHIELD's Heli Carrier?

You do not stand alone in this thought

I like the idea , a DC-130 , futuristic applications on a plane that long ago proved his usefullness already

a reply to: _Del_

This is pretty much what I was just describing, Very cool! Not very much show but I bet it would work pretty reliably.

There was a plan a while back to convert a 747 into a fighter carrier. I believe it was referred to as the AAC project.

a reply to: aholic

I've seen old film of those zeppelin retrievals. Those pilots had huevos grandes. cool to think those curtis biplanes were state of the art then.

If you're going to build a mothership...

It has three requirements:

Needs an energy shield, fully armed with thousands of nukes, and it has to be named 'Damocles'.

If the drones are ScanEagle sized about 49lbs vs RQ's at about 375lbs
imagine how many more ScanE's could be launched and recovered ?
And if the skies are to be filled with RPA's (ground or mothership)
we all know what an RQ7 can do to a pretty new C130 wing,
so again I vote for starting with a lighter safer RPA's for this idea.

This is what bothers me about posts such as those Astro posted, if we have huge manned lighter than air bases hidden above the clouds or anything similar why would DARPA release a RFI? No, not psyops or a smokescreen.

And out of interest, why DARPA and not Army/navy/CIA?

Imagine you could share this tech with an uav air to air refuel, depending on the recover solution, I imagine this day and age it would be much more precise and finessed than catching it in a net! But syncing the mothership with the UAV at the final point of recovery to have it fly into a capture device which keeps the crew safe.

Nice thread, can we make WAGs on the options, I see electromagnets have been mentioned.

If you matched the speed of the uav with the mothership, in relation the uav would be hovering, so you capture it and bring it in fast to reduce chance of turbulence causing a collision. I'm thinking a bomb bay and some sort of pole with a claw on the end.

“DARPA hopes to leverage significant investments in the area of precision relative navigation, which seeks to enable extremely co-ordinated flight activities among aircraft, as well as recent and ongoing development of small payloads" of 45kg (100lb) or less, it notes.

Precision Relative Navigation - Navair Autonomous Refueling

Wouldn't you want something big, A380 size, 2 decks, AWACS, repair facility, galley and sleeping, fuel and weapons, recovery and release all in one massive package with say X weeks endurance.

originally posted by: TheCrowMan
Wouldn't you want something big, A380 size, 2 decks, AWACS, repair facility, galley and sleeping, fuel and weapons, recovery and release all in one massive package with say X weeks endurance.

I think about it all the time. It would probably need a companion refueler to follow it around everywhere to service the jets and keep the massive airframe airborne for any kind of effectiveness. Reloading jets onboard might also prove difficult.