If...
if they're going to call it a "transformer", shouldn't the vehicle have arms and legs that fold away neatly when it's in vehicle-configuration?
The well-known robotics department at Carnegie Mellon university - famed among other things for accomplishments in the field of self-driving cars and for giving the world the 600-tonne automated Godzilla truck - has now been selected to provide an autopilot system for a military flying-jeep project. The Lockheed ducted-fan …
My state's budget is in the toilet, the roads I drive on are like cattle tracks, there's whingeing about the Federal budget being in deficit.
We can't have proper health care but we can play fantasy games with hover-jeeps.
(You've got the same problem in the UK, I see -- government's cutting budgets but is terminally addicted to big ticket, and somewhat useless, defense items.)
When I was a kid the Eagle comic had a strip about an Australian family who lived in a boat-shaped vehicle called a Bushwacker. It had wheels on outriggers from the hull, a jet engine at the back, and mast which could be used for propulsion under sail. The mast split into 3 rotor blades that let it fly like a helicopter.
I've been waiting for years for someone to build one. The cartoon-like drawing of the flying jeep reminds me just a little bit of it, and I still want my Bushwacker. Please.
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What would we ever do without Lewis Page and his inventive way with words?
"it is not so much crazy like a fox, as crazy like a fox whose body has been replaced by a powerful and heavily be-weaponed robotic combat walker unit which the fox's disembodied brain controls from within a bubbling nutrients tank in an armoured housing."
I just fervently hope that DARPA themselves never get to read that.
Insane autonomous fox-brained killbots sounds rather too right-up-their-street to me and thus waaay too tempting to dangle as an idea before an organisation that thinks about the eventual subjugation of the human race by evil, robotic overlords in terms of timescales and budgets.
but extra mobility is generally a good thing. "Fire and move" and all that. Plus, not getting stuck when the bridges are blown up.
Flying at night would be worse. heat seekers would find them more easily. Unless Murdoch was flying it. Just turn off the engine and you're invisible on infra-red in but half a second! (That was the only bit of Oceans A-Team that really, really annoyed me)
The military's budget probably outstrips the amount of federal subsidies for non-federally mandated programs, so really bringing them in is a nonsequitor. The program itself is minuscule compared to the cost of Medicare and Social Security, which are where the feds would have to look to do much in terms of trimming the budget.
VTOL + Armor = oxymoron
Look at the Harrier, it's basically a massive jet engine with wings, tail and a cockpit strapped to it.
Even with ~25,000lbs of thrust it can't take off vertically with a full payload!
Added to that this vehicle needs to support a standard road operational capability, with transmission, suspension etc off road tyres
You would be able to build something that could fly for 10-15mins before it ran out of fuel.
A car that primarily flies may be feasible and realistic in terms of a usable machine