The US Navy recently Landed a F/A-18 Hornet strike Fighter Jet on Aircraft Carrier Via Remote Control
The pilot was inside while he was doing anything.
Instead, an officer aboard the carrier guided the aircraft down by remote control.
The system is known as ATARI, and it is meant to solve the problem of landing unmanned aircraft during emergencies.
The test landings took place in late March aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
What is ATARI?
Atari Stand for aircraft terminal approach remote inceptor.
It consists of a F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter outfitted for remote operation.
hence gives the landing signal operator—a carrier pilot trained to guide other pilots to a safe landing—the ability to land an aircraft. The officer is inception.
The edges of the carrier flight deck and equipped with instruments that show an incoming airplane’s glidescope and lineup errors, providing him or her with the ideal vantage point and data for remotely landing a plane.
According to the U.S. Navy
“the ATARI system’s first successful carrier landing involved a manned F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter from the “Salty Dogs,” a Navy flight test squadron”
furthermore, The Hornet performed three near-landings, known as wave offs, as last-minute tests of the system before bringing the Hornet in for an actual landing. A previous version of ATARI was tested on land using a modified Learjet.
U.S. Navy Landed F-18 Hornet Fighter Jet on Aircraft Carrier Via Remote Control
Ultimately, ATARI is meant for unmanned airplanes landing on carrier decks.
Furthermore, The Navy conducted its first unmanned takeoffs and landings in 2013 with the experimental X-47B drone.
Although the service doesn’t have any unmanned carrier aircraft yet, the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker will enter service in the mid-2020s.
while The MQ-25 will likely have its own takeoff and landing system
The system, or something like it, also could land a manned aircraft in the event the pilot is incapacitated. provided the ATARI system is not too expensive or gets in the way of the pilot in the cockpit.
Most of all If the U.S. Navy can successfully control Hornet fighters through the toughest part of flight operations—landing on an aircraft carrier
consequently, It seems likely aircraft like the Hornet could be remotely operated for the rest of the flight as well.
In conclusion, This opens up the possibility the service’s successor to the F/A-18 Super Hornet, Next Generation Air Dominance, could be optionally manned.
