More from Tommy's Blog:
One interesting aspect of the control of the X-47B when it is on deck is that there are two guys, the primary and a backup (in this case Northrop Grumman test pilots), with the remote control hardware; they send commands to the X-47 to stop, to, turn, fold/unfold wings, etc. in accordance with the hand signals from the usual plane director in the yellow shirt just as if they were in the cockpit.
How much do you bet the Plane Director STILL faces the aircraft when he gives the hand signals? :)
And that control transmitter makes my 16 channel Robbe F-14 Navy look like a Sinclair ZX-81!
Kit do you have a Sinclair ZX-81? I'll still have mine. Paid waaaaay too much for it.
Hell no! I was WAY upmarket when I got my first computer. :)
It was an Amstrad CPC664, complete with
64 Mb of RAM and a
3" floppy drive, ultra-hi-tech stuff in those days. By the time I'd finished with it there was a veritable MOUNTAIN of plug-in add-ons hanging from the back of it, and it taught me a lot that was very useful later on in life, for work and leisure.