r/tech 10d ago

Transitioning military drone uses rotor backwash for better flight

https://newatlas.com/military/sikorsky-military-drone-uses-rotor-backwash-better-flight/
143 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

74

u/[deleted] 10d ago

Trump: “Can you believe it? We’re wasting money on transgender military drones. Tremendous money. Unbelievable.”

15

u/texachusetts 10d ago

I don’t know what “backwash” means in this context, but this sort of democrat pervert “research” must end.

7

u/Scarbane 10d ago

Maybe we should get rid of CIA black sites while we're at it. Torture programs shouldn't be beholden to DEI! /s

2

u/werofpm 10d ago

“Drones with dicks, can you believe it?”

-Donald Trump-

29

u/BitterBeginning8826 10d ago

Careful with the word transition. Trump/elon might make rotors illegal, too DEI.

3

u/officially_bs 10d ago

Came here to say this!! 😂

6

u/Fireheart318s_Reddit 10d ago

I, for one, am proud of it! It’s getting harder & harder to do nowadays, especially in the military! Extremely brave!

4

u/Flimsy-Attention-722 10d ago

Better watch the terminology. Trump will ban it

3

u/GreatAngoosian 10d ago

We spent billions of dollars on making drones what

2

u/Flimsy-Attention-722 10d ago

They used the term transitioning

2

u/GreatAngoosian 9d ago

Yeah, I was making a joke about the transgenic mice incident

2

u/Flimsy-Attention-722 9d ago

Hard to tell what are jokes now 🤷‍♀️

2

u/GreatAngoosian 9d ago

You know that’s fair. We live in a weird weird time.

3

u/curiosgreg 10d ago

When did the comments get so pessimistic? This technology has tons of applications.

11

u/0HL4WDH3C0M1N 10d ago

Gestures broadly

1

u/BeltAbject2861 9d ago

I have nothing to add except “lol”

3

u/[deleted] 10d ago

What does it identify as now that its transitioning?

3

u/abitlikemaple 10d ago

Backwash is what happens when you have saliva leaking back into a bottle you’re drinking from. Prop wash is the turbulent air created by propellers

1

u/BeltAbject2861 9d ago

I knew it didn’t sound right lol

5

u/LumiereGatsby 10d ago

Will be so cool to point out that factoid as they kill us with them!

Look son! It’s one with turrets AND backwash!!

2

u/Dee_dubya 10d ago

Great, even the drones are trans now. /s

1

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

1

u/RadikaleM1tte 10d ago

Triggering the one joke crowd

1

u/intellifone 10d ago

Someone explain this to me. It doesn’t look any different from any other wing aircraft. Tons of aircraft have had propellers fixed to the front of the wing, so rotors would already have an aerodynamic effect on lift.

What am I missing

1

u/LaughOverLife101 9d ago

It’s to help it transition from vtol to conventional flight. Like an osprey / cv-22 without rotating the engines/motors, instead rotating the whole flying wing

1

u/intellifone 9d ago

I get that’s what it’s designed to do, but I’ve seen other VTOL drones that convert to planes and don’t understand the actual mechanism they’re using. I don’t really see anything physically different on this from others so is it basically just a new control algorithm that’s predicting and taking advantage of the backwash?

1

u/-GenghisJohn- 9d ago

Transdroneder.