UAV Carrier Launch with Landing Gear Up

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Article source: http://worldthinktank.net/. Used with author's permission.

Landing Gear on aircraft create one hell of a lot of drag, which if you are trying to slow down to land can be a very good thing. But if you are trying to get to flying speed and climb or maintain take off weight off a carrier, well it might be good to not have that drag hanging out there. In fact if we could get rid of the landing gear on take off then we maybe able to launch several Large UAVs at once. If we could launch three UAVs on each of three catapults then we could send up set up delta formation swarms of three, threes of nine controlled by one. The sooner they make formation the faster we could use the aerodynamics of those tight formations to save fuel and increase range. Additionally we would receive another benefit of fuel due to the military power takeoffs, which could go literally immediately to best climb and cruise efficiency.

How could this be done? Well it should be fairly easy. If we use cradles to hold the UAVs this could work. You roll the UAVs onto the cradle and then put up the landing gear. The lead aircraft would take of with a 10% angle of attack, the second with 16% and the rear UAV at 26%. This keeps them out of each others slipstream and wake turbulence. The larger carriers with side catapult launch would do the same thing 15 seconds later and then the other front catapult in 15 seconds after that. You just launched 9 UAVs to handle the net-centric battlespace grid in 30 seconds. Once away, then you can flip unhook the cradles and get busy launching your commander chase plane with the pilots to handle the strike to meet them. We can do this. Think on it.