Phantom Knights

摘要

Many people don't realise the crew of a US Air Force unmanned aircraft is larger than the crew of most of its jet fighters. For an unmanned aircraft, or better-called remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), there is a crew comprising of at least a pilot and a sensor operator. Flying an RPA requires just as much airmanship and situational awareness as piloting a manned aircraft. Real-world missions can be hectic and stressful. To train and prepare crews, the 558th Flying Training Squadron (FTS) provides the fundamental flying education on flying an RPA and operating its sensors. The most important thing to learn to fly is summed up by three keywords: aviate, navigate, communicate. An RPA is flown through remote means using a data link. The traditional way multirole RPAs operate is to send launch and recovery-qualified crews downrange to a Launch and Recovery Element (LRE). LREs are mostly overseas and closer to the area of operation. The LRE transmits via line-of-sight communications and takes off and lands the aircraft, because there is no inherent delay to the signals in the transmissions.