<story><title>Empty F-16 jet tested by Boeing and US Air Force</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24231077</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>narfquat</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  The firm added that the flight attained 7Gs of acceleration but was capable 
  of carrying out manoeuvres at 9Gs - something that might cause physical problems 
  for a pilot.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Wow, I guess this means they can push the machines to their mechanical limit without worrying about blackouts&amp;#x2F;redouts&amp;#x2F;etc. I wonder what kind of crazy maneuvers they can pull off without the biological factor?&lt;p&gt;Also: I&amp;#x27;m not sure how I feel about a $15-18 million target dummy...&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ISL</author><text>You can save a lot of weight, iterate faster, undertake missions without concern for return, make big wins in the aerodynamic department, get improved situational awareness with strategically sited cameras, and more.&lt;p&gt;Of course, if someone can interfere with or hack your link with the aircraft, you&amp;#x27;re hosed. If they can turn it around and attack you with it, it&amp;#x27;s even worse.&lt;p&gt;That, and the Blue Angels will be far less romantic when there&amp;#x27;s nobody at the helm of each finely-tuned airbreathing rocket.&lt;p&gt;Things change.&lt;p&gt;(Modern air-to-air missiles are $0.4-1.2M [1,2]. Modern war is expensive; we trade consuming lives at war for consuming economic output at home.)&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-9_Sidewinder&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;AIM-9_Sidewinder&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;AIM-120_AMRAAM&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Empty F-16 jet tested by Boeing and US Air Force</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24231077</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>narfquat</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  The firm added that the flight attained 7Gs of acceleration but was capable 
  of carrying out manoeuvres at 9Gs - something that might cause physical problems 
  for a pilot.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Wow, I guess this means they can push the machines to their mechanical limit without worrying about blackouts&amp;#x2F;redouts&amp;#x2F;etc. I wonder what kind of crazy maneuvers they can pull off without the biological factor?&lt;p&gt;Also: I&amp;#x27;m not sure how I feel about a $15-18 million target dummy...&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>graupel</author><text>I got to fly back-seat in an F-16 once for 53 minutes and managed to handle a 9.2 G turn and I&amp;#x27;m not a pilot or a drone.  The first 10 minutes of the flight were amazing, the next 30 were incredible, the next 10 were meh, and the last 3 - well let&amp;#x27;s just say I was happy to be back on the ground and leave it at that.</text></comment>