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Wright Flyer Paper : The Last Manned Fighter; Replacing Manned Fighters with Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles , Vol. 32

By: Major Robert B. Trsek, USAF

This research is framed in the context of a specialized weapon in military aviation: an unmanned multirole fighter capable of replacing manned systems and their respective missions. This paper gives a brief history of unmanned aerial vehicles and their employment as weapons to demonstrate the evolution from ISR platform to unmanned combat air vehicle and then evolves into two main sections of “can we” and “should we” pursue this avenue of development. The primary means of answering the research question is both technical and philosophical. Before being able to answer if the Air Force should pursue an unmanned fighter, it is necessary to determine if it is technically feasible for such a system....

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