Drone Airplanes

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1927766,00.html

Drone or what I call remote control planes are now in the U.S. Air Force. They are called Predator planes, and are manned completely from the ground in Nevada. These drone planes were first going to only be piloted by former Air Force pilots, but after some logical thinking they can now be manned by anyone capable of just understanding aeronautics and using that knowledge via computer. The U.S. Government realized that only letting proven pilots fly these was a waste of money. They spend upwards of 1 million dollars, and eighteen months of training to train an F-22 Fighter Pilot. They believe they should let these pilots stay in their cockpits. The pilots that fly the predator plane go through a training course outside of Las Vegas at the Creech Air Force Base. These pilots are said to be leading the way in this new field of drone flying technology. These new pilots are very proud of what they do with their knowledge. Their main purpose is to do reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan and Iraq but they are able to fire missiles from their plane if needed. The planning for this drone plane took twelve years before it was put into action and requires a large amount of troops to maintain and pilot these drone planes. There are thirty-seven Predator planes in use right now, and they have a staff of over 150 flying and maintaining them.

I think that these drone planes are very interesting and hope they are able to prove themselves in combat situations. I really believe that this technology will protect some of our troops and save many lives in the future.

I reacted this way because I think that any type of unmanned aircraft is awesome. If it were to go down the only thing our forces would be out is some time and money. I also believe these predator planes will give good detail and information to our ground troops from reconnaissance they do. The pilots flying these should be proud of what they do and hailed for the American lives they save. I hope to see more unmanned vehicles in the future.

If you enjoy video games this might just be the job for you. The future is going wireless and now its saving lives too.