Quote Originally Posted by gute View Post
I read recently that aircraft technology can only go so far before the performance of the aircraft (extreme g forces) kills the pilot. The key is missile technology or the ability to shoot down aircraft behind you, below, above, etc.
Conscience is lost at +12g with liquid-based anti-g suits. That's 3 Gs higher than with pneumatic anti-g suits and well beyond most airframes' safety limits.

The acceleration won't kill the pilot directly at 13-20 G, but he's unable to control the aircraft and might take relatively long to recover and regain control afterwards. Automated evasion manoeuvres should therefore be possible beyond 12 G - it just takes a while until the pilot can regain control.



The problem is another one, and independent of "manned or unmanned". Large airframes simply cannot withstand as high accelerations as cylindric missiles, the missile manoeuvrability wins. This is apparently even true despite the fact that an intercepting airframe needs to pull a many times as Gs to hit an evading airframe (such as 42 Gs to reliably hit a 9G evading object).

Aircraft manoeuvrability is largely irrelevant for today's fighters because the most advanced air-air missiles can already be launched to hit a target behind the launching platform. They simply turn on the first few hundred meters by 180° and lock on after launch - guess why the Russians installed rear radars in their last fighter series. The F-35 has the DAS for the same purpose (and other purposes).



I suspect that active defences (jamming or shooting down incoming missiles, known from ships and now also from tanks and transport aircraft - bound to happen in fighters) will become relevant in the near future.
This will add even more per unit cost and require additional installation volume and surface.