GAUVIN: Cape Cod visionaries can imagine peaceful uses for military's drones
By Paul Gauvin
U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO PEACEFUL MISSION - A Reaper drone taking off in Afghanistan could just as well be landing at Barnstable Municipal Airport after a peaceful mission. Consider for a moment that German aeronautical engineer and scientist Werner von Braun designed and headed the development of the first working model of a rocket for Hitler. He surrendered to U.S. forces when World War II ended. That was after his rockets had killed more than 5,000 people in London and elsewhere and caused massive destruction. Nonetheless, he became an American hero by helping President John F. Kennedy's and NASA's futuristic vision to reach the moon and was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Kennedy. Perhaps we call that "breaking good." But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to consider that drones are part of the future and that Barnstable could play a role in the use of unmanned flight for peaceful purposes. Today's most modern military drone in service, the Reaper Mq-9, is technology in transition. It is an upscale model of its predecessor, the Predator, and both have formed a reputation and image in the public eye as deadly attack weapons for surveillance, hunting and killing. But it takes pilots to fly these things from a ground control station. It takes military or spy agency heads to order missions and, in the final analysis, a consenting public majority. It may not strike the layman immediately, but the Cape's Joint Base (Otis) being chosen to test the integration of unmanned aerial flight into common air space could open the door to as yet unforeseen opportunities for those on, or close to, the cutting edge of another possible leap for mankind. The Predator drone, the predecessor of the Reaper, is a medium altitude mobile eye in the sky that can transmit real-time information directly to the foot soldier and operational commanders via satellite communications. It gives the boots the advantage of reconnaissance, or recon, behind enemy lines without risking lives. We're told the Predator is sold as a system of four aircraft, a ground control system and data distribution terminal. Drone control can be switched and swapped between ground stations. For example, we are told, one ground station can be used for takeoff and landing, while another station closer to the action can control the actual mission. The aircraft is 27 feet long with a 49-foot wingspan, has an altitude limit of 25,000 feet and a 400-nautical-mile range. It can cruise at 140 mph and remain aloft 40 hours for a good long look at terrain and ground activity. The Reaper Mq-9, on the other hand, is closer in size to the A-10 described in an earlier column as an approximate size of drone aircraft that will be tested on the Cape. Page 2 of 2 - While the A-10 is 53 feet long with a 57-foot wingspan, the Reaper is 36 feet long but with a longer wingspan at 67 feet. The predator was lightly armed and used mostly for recon; the Reaper was designed for quick hunt and kill missions. Its rear-mounted turboprop jet can push it at 300 mph with maximum altitude of 50,000 feet, which is about the limit that commercial airliners fly. It can cruise at 194 mph and remain aloft for 14 hours fully loaded with various missiles ready to strike and longer without them. Seeing the Reaper in the Cape's air space at lower altitudes shouldn't be that difficult one imagines, particularly if there is advanced notice of some flights by the testing crews. The U.S. Air Force, the primary drone user, is continuously dishing out contracts to improve the Reaper's electronics, weight-carrying capacity, range and endurance aloft. The presumption is that each improvement aside from weaponry will enhance the UAV's adaptability and usefulness for peaceful/commercial missions as well as mean machines of war. The Barnstable Municipal Airport is primed to be of ancillary service to the Otis testing site should the need arise. Its two runways of over 5,000 feet provide more than enough distance to handle the Reaper's average landing requirement of roughly 2,000 feet. As a lifelong journalist, I can already envision a Predator or Reaper quietly taking off from Barnstable's runways at 5 a.m. making the daily run to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and P'town carrying hundreds of bundled newspapers that provide information needed to maintain a democracy. We can assume the Coast Guard, always on the alert for distress missions, could find some mighty interesting uses for the drones. And so can you. Think about it.