Q/X-18 Drone Hornet

ITS BASED ON AND INSPIRED FROM @ToeTips's F/A-18X Hyperhornet (Blue Angels Edition)

LORE:
Q/X-18 ‘DRONE HORNET’

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Q/X-18 ‘DRONE HORNET’ is a part of man-unmaned aircraft program develope by BOEING and McDonnell Douglas's from the same requirement for NGAD "FA-XX". It was developed from the current F/X-18 SEA HORNET's design to an unmaned version. Upgraded with new closed cockpit with enhanced system, lighter and folding airframe for cost and space effective, better maneauverability to able to perform much more G-force, enclosed weapons pod and as air to air refueling tanker capability. The idea is to able only single pilot operating two or more aircraft during a mission.

The UAV would be operate with either an AI system on board to perform basic task commanded by the pilot or with the highly advance C.O.F.F.I.N system. C.O.F.F.I.N. was inspired from a combat flight simulation video game called "ACE COMBAT" with a slight twist to it. An operator or rescued pilot would be able to fly and assist a pilot during combat while being at a carrier. It allows the pilot to perform even higher G-Force without the disadvantages of being in an actual cockpit. The UAV was built to accomodate the amount of pilots need to pilot a jet that would take years to trained also to perform high risk and impossible tasks

WAR INFORMATION

In 2030, after 4 years since the deployment of F/X-18 in the South China Sea in an occupied Taiwan, the US NAVY has been in desperate need for a solution on their amount of pilots lost during the wars. After China kept on using somewhat trained pilots that they could produce in a month and high resources to produce such cheap 5gen jets to outnumbered the NAVY's pilot , the DOD reactivate one of the cancel requirements for the NGAD project that were deemed too ambition and unrealistic at the time. Quickly Boeing's McDonnell Douglas is the one to propose an idea to just reuse parts for the F/X-18 SEA HORNET assembly line to produce high amout of DRONE HORNET. The design and proposal has been accepted and given a greenlight to be mass produce. After short and rushed years of development and testing the NAVY finally deploy them in the straits of Taiwan to supress Chinese pilots and ships advancing to the south from their ports. On one incident, an injured pilot who was being on a sleep while entering the COFFIN tried to chase a new unknown chinese super jet that goes mach 5 unfortunately hit with some kind of unknown emp strike from the aircraft it chased. The pilot goes in to a coma after being hit and the UAV were to shot down by the F/X-18 pilot. After the accident the NAVY decided to not let its pilot goes to close to the Chinese super jet in fear for the same outcome and risking its technology falls into the wrong hand after discovering the system got breached when the UAV tried to reboot automaticly. Unfortunately theres no telling weither the Chinese got some of the data on board after the emp strikes. Now its just a waiting game before they probably could produce an aircraft such as DRONE HORNET

Maiden flight - 12/18/2036
Final flight - STILL IN USE
Number built - 545
Amount still Air-Worthy - 498
Kills - 354 (PRESENT DAY)
Cost - $3.78 Billion USD
Missions - 231

SHOWCASE

COCKPIT AND TARGETING POD

FOLDING AIRFRAME TO SAVE SPACE

OFFICIAL LOGO(basically a png logo of a hornet and a vr headset lmao)

AG-1 COFFIN, targeting pod
AG-2 Lights
AG-3 Supermanueverability
AG-4 Master arms
AG-5 Fold wings
AG-6 Refuel drouge
AG-7 Arresting Hook

SuperCruise- 40,000ft + 90-95% thrust
AfterBurner- +96% thrust
Trim- Trim
+Vtol- Extand refueling drouge

Credits
@ToeTips - F/A-18X Hyperhornet (Blue Angels Edition)
@ASBE - LOW EARTH ORBIT DEFENSE INTERCEPTOR's cockpit
@DwiAngkasaAeronautics (@Otana's fa-xx version) - Sintrex targeting pod
@AlexMty - MQ-17 weapons, flare, weapons bay

FX-18A SEA HORNET MULTIROLE VARIANT