What Killed the Polecat?
Flying an unmanned aircraft can be a little like skiing downhill backwards. When you’re no longer absolutely sure you’re going in the right direction, it’s probably a good time to just fall down. We’re not really sure why the P-175 Polecat — the latest Skunk Works creation anybody outside of Palmdale is allowed to know about — met an early grave last December, and the Skunk Works public relations machinery (surprise!) isn’t helping very much. For the Skunk Works, I understand that secrecy and obfuscation may be considered a core competency but in this case it’s not just annoying. It’s irresponsible. The future of unmanned flight depends above all on the level of transparancy about why these aircraft crash so much and what is being done to prevent it. Many times the reason for a UAV crash is just like the backwards skiier. Once control of the UAV is disrupted or lost in any way, the safest option is to crash immediately. Unfortunately, we don’t know if this simple explanation applies
