Sidewinder armed OFW UCAV from 1974

[flateric]

Of course, not so fancy looking as X-45C and X-47B, but...


PRELIMINARY PERFORMANCE ESTIMATES OF
AN OBLIQUE, ALL-WING, REMOTELY PILOTED
VEHICLE FOR AIR-TO-AI COMBAT
by Walter P, Nelms, Jr., and Rodaey 0. Bailey
Ames Research Center
Moffet Field, Calif.

 

[Jemiba]

vstol has written a very interesting paper for an AIAA meeting this year, about oblique
wing aircraft. Some additional informations rom it about this UCAV :
Speed Mach 1.6 at 30.000 ft, 500 pds payload and an electro-optical system in the wing
leading edge, air launched and recovered.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

Quite odd to see an oblique flying wing UAV be designed for air-to-air combat long before General Atomics entered the scene with the Gnat-750, RQ-1/MQ-1, and MQ-9. Was there any knowledge by the aeronautical community in the 1970s about how to stabilize an all-wing UCAV in air-to-air combat, given that the invention of fly-by-wire made stability of all-wing planes possible?