Teaching Drones To Fly in Formation

From The Danger Room:

In a clever bit of viral marketing, a few weeks ago Lockheed Martin released artwork on-line depicting the company’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter painted in the colors of the Air Force’s Thunderbirds aerobatics team, which in the real world flies F-16s. The delayed, over-budget F-35 is “not likely to appear in Thunderbird colors for at least another decade,” Steve Trimble noted.

By that time, drone aircraft should be viable “alternatives to traditionally manned aircraft across a broad spectrum of Air Force missions,” according to Col. Eric Mathewson. So why not paint General Atomics MQ-9 Reapers, Northrop Grumman X-47s or the future MQ-M fighter drone in the colors of the Thunderbirds or the Navy’s Blue Angels? After all, robot planes can pull far more Gs than a human-piloted plane, potentially making for a far more impressive display.

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My Comment: Drones may not fly in formation now .... but give it time.