A storm on the way

摘要

A head of this summer's Farnborough International Airshow we ran a somewhat timely poll on The Engineer's website asking readers whether they felt we might currently be seeing the last generation of manned military aircraft.The response was fascinating, with just a third of those voting expecting the next generation of aircraft to have a pilot and the rest expecting them to be either fully autonomous or remotely operated.ndustry, though, had its own ideas. And just days later used Farnborough to take the wraps off 'Project Tempest', a £2bn effort to develop a new generation of fighter jet which, whilst bristling with all , of the latest technology- including (potentially) directed energyweapons and a payload of drones - will stillhave a human pilot sitting in the cockpit. Details so far are sketchy and it's unlikelythat the eventual aircraft will look much like thehastily put together mock-up that graced BAESystems' cavernous Farnborough display. But inthis issue's cover story we glean what we canfrom the BAE engineers most closely involved inthe project as well as a former RAF Air Marshalwho talks candidly about what we might expectfrom a true 21 st-century combat aircraft. Weawait with interest further details on a projectthat promises to dominate UK defenceengineering in the years to come.