Exactly. We have it to good to want to risk it all.
I’m not sure I should even post this to humor the people who keep talking CW, but what the heck. Maybe it will impress just how hard what they are proposing is.
The CW people want to hurt the Left? REALLY hurt them? Fine. Here is the best assessment I can come up with.
1. Design a lightweight airframe. My guess is wingspan somewhere around 10-15 feet. It will have to accommodate hefty fuel tanks because it will be gasoline-powered. Don’t even think about batteries. You’ll see why. Long story short: you’ll need a range of at least 100 miles. Probably 150.
2. Design and test a lightweight, air-cooled gasoline engine for said airframe. You’ll be doing it all from scratch because there is no way you’ll be sourcing them in the numbers you’ll need without being noticed (and it would be cost-prohibitive anyway).
3. Design and test a small flight computer that can fly your airframe along a series of GPS waypoints to a target. Bear in mind that it will have to be able to deal with turbulence and that you’ll have to account for terrain and obstacles. Would be a shame to fly into a hill, tree, tall building, or high-tension power line. You can find lots of components for guidance on places like Sparkfun. You won’t be buying a ready-made flight computer because of the numbers you’ll need and because of cost. Better make damned sure it has the range you need to. You won’t be launching it anywhere near your target. You’ll see why.
4. Test and validate your integrated system. Have it fly autonomously along a course with varied terrain and land itself (landing isn’t all that necessary in the end but you’ll need your airframe to survive to complete all your testing, since it definitely won’t be “one and done”). Oh, and you’ll have to do this in secrecy, meaning, WAY out in the middle of nowhere.
5. Design a “warhead”. This is actually the easy part. You won’t be using explosives. Your airframe will be carrying an incendiary device. I don’t know anything about those but I’m guessing that magnesium will be a component. To this end, your airframe might need to be a pusher-propeller type so that the business end is all at the front, but what do I know.
6. Mass-produce your airframe. Numbers you need: at least 200, but probably more like 500. You read right. FIVE-HUNDRED. Better make it out of something cheap to acquire. This is why you won’t be anywhere near your target. No way to hide them in these numbers unless you’re WAY out in the sticks.
7. Designate your launch point and give each one a unique flight plan. Your target: the tops of residential row homes in the city of your choice. One airframe = one building. Landing not necessary. Each one flies in, pitches down, and crashes.
8. Launch. It takes time to launch 500 aircraft. Like a LOT of time.
9. Prepare to be caught, because no way in hell this isn’t getting noticed on airport radars.
There you go. One Dresden-style attack. That’s the scale of what you’d need as anything less is just p*ssing into the wind. I’d be impressed if a lone wolf made it to step 6, but I won’t call it impossible. As for steps 6 and beyond, good luck.
Now you see why I consider CW talk folly.