The Reaper's Home

[Joecoastie]

Joecoastie,
Are those the T. Conrad models?

Yes they are. I deleted the panel and sound, etc to make the 2 AI. Dont know how good they work/fly for AI . . was in a hurry to make some pics before getting off to work. Didn't appear to slow things down too much.

[MIKE JG]

Just ran across this interesting web posting about the Grey Butte facility:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... s%3Disch:1

[Kurosaki]

Hmm...that second picture of the MQ-9 looks so tough compared to the MQ-1.

[Joecoastie]

A very cool posting. The pics are super informative.
FYI . . . . According to the Homeland Security site, the CBP has six Predator B UAV's.
Three are stationed at Libby Army Airfield (Ft. Huachuca, AZ), two are stationed at Grand Forks AFB
and one is in Florida being or has been modified for the Coast Guard to use.

[MIKE JG]

And that version is called the "Guardian" and looks like this:

Gonna be a whole separate model me thinks.

[MIKE JG]

Then there's this version which is currently and very quietly operating out of the Seychelles (with the country's blessing) for anti piracy patrols off the African coast:



The big pod under the right wing is most likely a sea scanning radar capable of detecting small vessels and skiffs over long distances.

[MIKE JG]

Someone was asking where General Atomics builds the airframes. I said right there at the airfield but obviously I don't know what the heck I'm talking about as evidenced by this article, which reads in the caption below the photo, "A predator drone like those used in missions over Afghanistan and Iraq prepared to be shipped from a General Atomics plant in Poway, Calif., where it was built."

So that answers that. I thought I read somewhere that the smaller MQ-1's can be shipped in special containers, then can be assembled on site. I don't think the same occurs for the Reaper, I think it's too big for that.

Link to this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/busin ... ml?_r=1&hp

[leone35130]

Here is some video I shot a few months ago out at Grey Butte. The subtitles are thrown off. I live out this way and have been around both Grey Butte and El Mirage facilities in my Jeep. When these things go high, they are very difficult to see. It's a rush seeing these things flying up close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_dN2Lfkmas

When I first started watching the Predators flying out here several years ago at El Mirage, they didn't have chase planes. Now they are mandated to have them. There is an outfit out of the old George AFB that flies chase planes for them. Some of them fly in from the San Diego facility with chase planes.

What I've been told is that the CIA works out of the El Mirage Facility now flying the UAVs, and the Air Force flies theirs out of Grey Butte. Grey Butte has recently been upgraded to handle the increased load of aircraft coming through there. They are both training bases.

They just had a Reaper crash last week north of El Mirage.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123220152

[MIKE JG]

Thanks for sharing that. Every little bit of video helps me with the model's construction. In all the videos I've seen, except for one, they (either the MQ-1 or MQ-9) don't appear to use any sort of landing flaps. Can you confirm that?

[leone35130]

I didn't see any flaps. From what it looks like, all controls are via the tail section.

The Reaper especially is a good looking aircraft.