Manufacturer: General Atomics

Model: unknown

Name: Aerius

Type: High altitude long-endurance (HALE) reconnaissance platform

Date: 2013

Status: Operational service

Country: United States of America

Service: U.S. Air Force

Designation: ER-11A

General Atomics' Aeronautical Systems division has produced the high-altitude ER-11A Aerius spyplane for the U.S. Air Force, a piloted reconnaissance aircraft whose general lines are reminiscent of their succesful Altair surveillance drone.

Simply took the photo of an Altair drone (see below right), colored the airframe, added a cockpit reworked from a B-2 bomber; shortened the fuselage and all three fins... and voilà!

• "That Aerius looks interesting. Along the same lines, I have often wondered how a manned Global Hawk would look." (Jschmus)
• "Awesome Aircraft. Why do I picture a PA Blaring the Order, 'Scramble,Scramble' with Crews running to their Aircraft?" (Cobra)
• "The Aerius has a monster turboprop! Very sexy design though." (pyro-manic)
• "Stargazer... My respect to you... Perfectly well! What if... you mounted two GAU-8 guns from an A-10?
" (JazzTime)

If a small unmanned version can fly high, a manned enlarged variant could, too... But the type of missions it could fill in does not really require manpower I guess...