February’s Afterburner Club Call was an opportunity to peer inside my figurative crystal ball and look at the future of flight! For those of you that joined us, and especially for those of you that couldn’t make it, I thought that I would give you all a little taste of the topics that were discussed.

Who knows, if you save this post or print it out and take a look in 20 years, or even 50 years you may see how right I was!

Manned Flight

As we discussed during this month’s call we are now on the 5th generation of fighter aircraft, which I predict will be the last generation of manned aircraft. This includes the American F-22 and F-35s and “enemy” planes such as the Russian T-10s. Most of these aircraft have stand-off or internal weaponry which I will talk more about in another blog I have in the works.

In general, since the time of William Wallace, and even before, weaponry has been developed so that we can attack the enemy from further and further away, and in the last 50 years the distance has seemed to grow exponentially. I predict in the future that this distance will continue to grow and that eventually, though not in our lifetime, that military aircraft will mostly be unmanned.

Unmanned Flight

Whether you think it’s a good idea or not this is likely the future of both military and commercial aircraft. It is likely going to be introduced into the military a lot sooner than in the commercial market, mostly because of consumer trust.

In the next 20-40 years unmanned aircraft will be a reality for most military operations.

Enemy Flight

Now I am referring to China, Russia and India when I am talking about enemy flight, and though they may not necessarily be our enemy, they do sell to our enemies so their technology does effect what aircraft we will be fighting in the future.

Though in most cases they are keeping up to date with the technology, they also have a different mindset than our armed forces. It is a reality that we may be facing more manned aircraft with lesser technology and this can still have an impact on how we manage our military forces, especially as we move away from manned aircraft. I am really curious to see what you all think about this issue!

Space Flight

You heard it here first, or maybe not! I predict in the 21st century that we will see the first real Star Wars! As our space technology grows and more and more countries get involved in space capable aircraft and space station technology the inevitability of smaller and more military based spacecraft being developed is likely.

I also predict that commercial space flight will become more common and more “affordable” in our lifetime.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who joined us for this month’s call and invite you all to listen to the call for those of you who missed it.

And keep asking those great questions! They really get me fired up!