Mockup of an MQ-8C Fire Scout
from the Northrup Grumman
display a Sea-Air-Space Expo 2013
Kelsey D. Atherton
PopSci - The new MQ-8C Fire Scout looks so much like a normal helicopter that
it took me two days of wandering the 2013 Sea-Air-Space convention floor
to even notice it. In fact, the latest evolution of Northrup Grumman's
naval drone looks so much like the past of aeronautics that it's easy to
miss how it's the future.
The mock-up on display had sensors ideal for surveillance, which is what the Fire Scout's smaller predecessor currently does for the U.S. Navy. But the new, larger Fire Scout will also be able to do everything a helicopter can already do, including carrying medical personnel for emergency airlifts, and it will do some things they can't, like fly longer distances by carrying extra fuel instead of people.
The Fire Scout is yet another look at the future of aviation, in which vehicles are driven not by human occupants but instead by intelligent machines or remote pilots.
More
The mock-up on display had sensors ideal for surveillance, which is what the Fire Scout's smaller predecessor currently does for the U.S. Navy. But the new, larger Fire Scout will also be able to do everything a helicopter can already do, including carrying medical personnel for emergency airlifts, and it will do some things they can't, like fly longer distances by carrying extra fuel instead of people.
The Fire Scout is yet another look at the future of aviation, in which vehicles are driven not by human occupants but instead by intelligent machines or remote pilots.
More
