Included in this video is film of the test flight of an early electric VTOL recon RPV. In order to look over trees and terrain, this vehicle would be launched from an armored personell carrier and would fly up with a TV camera. However, the technology simply wasn’t quite there for a free-flight vehicle… so it could only fly as far as the extension cord and TV coax cable would allow it to.
[youtube oKWpm3SESps]
Come for the promise of interesting weapons concepts… stay for the stilted acting and shots of clearly unhappy scientists and technicians. Oh, and the bongos. Don’t forget the bongos. When you see “Produced by the US Army,” you of course immediately think “I’m gonna hear some beatnik banging on bongos.”
One Response to “Science Moves The Army”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
The oil filter that can remove fallout particles is about as perfectly 1950’s as you can get.
The variable hydro-pneumatic suspension system for the tank will show up on the MBT-70 prototypes, and was one of the many advanced (and loopy) technologies that made Germany pull out of the whole project due to complexity and cost per vehicle, and make the all-German Leopard II instead.
I thought standing around near the UAV during testing looked like a good way to get your head cut off, till I considered what having it crank up inside the M113’s hull with you would be like, from a noise point of view alone. 😉