The Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah said it flew a remotely piloted spy plane over several communities in northwestern Israel and called it a response to frequent Israeli military flights over Lebanese airspace.

The B-17 Flying Fortress, obsolete as a combat aircraft, was being tested to fly remotely.

The Air Force wants to use the base-closing process to assign new missions to the Guard, including information operations and flying remotely piloted Predators.

It culminated on December 1, 1984, when he remotely flew an unpiloted, heavily instrumented Boeing 720 to a prepared impact point on Rogers Dry Lake to test the flammability of anti-misting jet fuel in a crash situation.

"From how far away do you think I can remotely fly that plane, Smitty?"

As the researchers discover evidence aboard the spacecraft that the aliens were planning to return to Earth, government agents remotely fly a jet filled with explosives into the hangar - a move aimed at killing off all involved in the cover-up in a final attempt to maintain secrecy.

But by 2000 improvements in communications systems (perhaps by use of the USAF's JSTARS system) made it possible, at least in theory, to fly the drone remotely from great distances.

The Air Force wants to retire aging aircraft from many Guard units, close or consolidate some of their bases and give some units new missions, like flying remotely piloted Predator aircraft, that are better suited to today's national security environment, Air Force officials say.