Posted on 12/19/2012 7:03:56 PM PST by Seizethecarp
Less than a month ago, rumors that celebrity news and gossip website TMZ was interested in obtaining a paparazzi drone prompted privacy concerns and public debate about the appropriate personal and commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Now, a new online video poses a more troubling question: What if civilian drones are equipped to shoot more than just pictures?
Titled “Citizen Drone Warfare” and posted to YouTube last week by an anonymous man calling himself “Milo Danger,” the video shows a hobbyist drone equipped with a custom-mounted paintball pistol flying over a grassy field and peppering human-shaped shooting-range targets with pellets.
Following an attack pass by the drone, one of the targets sports three large red blotches on its head and neck area.
“I wanted to show an inevitability of what I think will happen with these drones,” said “Milo,” who lives on the West Coast and spoke to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity. “I’m not advocating bad activities. But I wanted to raise some of the ethical issues we need to think about with this new technology.
Though Federal Aviation Administration regulations do not explicitly mention the use of firearms on drones, they do prohibit any type of recreational flying or dropping objects from aircraft that endanger life or property.
DIYDrones.com, a drone hobbyist website and online community that counts defense and aerospace engineers among its 32,000 members and averages more than 1.5 million page views a month, discourages using or modifying drones for any uses that are “potentially illegal or intended to do harm.”
“We’ve banned the weaponized use of drones,” said Chris Anderson, the site’s founder. “So in our community, the reaction to this video is dismay.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
So, did you?
/johnny
But will it have GPS autonomous navigation capable of taking it to any specific latitude, longitude and altitude within its capabilities that you command...capable of receiving updated destinations of the fly? These are called waypoints and can be hundreds or even thousands of miles away, depending on the drone specs.
For examples see:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilot-mega-home-page
http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter
Years ago I had a plan to put one of those BB guns that dumps a hole can of BBs on a remote control plane...never wasted the money.
Ask yourself whether an airport runway could be “mined” by a swarm of GPS controlled mini-helicopters capable of placing themselves in the known runway path of a turbofan mounted on a known airplane-type where the distance and elevation from the runway of each turbofan on the airplane type is known as it comes down the runway. Remember that the GPS coordinates of all airport runway centerlines can be easily obtained from GoogleEarth.
No onboard explosives or weapons would be needed on the mini-helicopters. The mere kinetic impact of mini-helicopter and turbofan would cause turbofan disintegration.
You don’t need air clearance if you stay below 400 ft and below.
I lucked out and got to be present at a couple of chicken cannon tests. One on a fighter canopy. One into a jet engine running at 100%.
That equipment is made to withstand 500MPH bird strikes.
I don't know where you are getting your information, but GPS isn't inch accurate, and there are cheaper, much cheaper ways of achieving your stated objective.
Even cooks know that.
/johnny
Depends of where you are. It's considered polite around here not to bust 100 ft AGL without warning. But I'm pretty close to a threshold.
/johnny
There’s a guy who had flown his RC glider to 498mph clocked with a radar gun. Might have hit 550mph when it wasn’t being clocked. I certainly wouldn’t want to be hit with that!
Video at link of glider doing 468mph.
So. . .someone adds a camera and gets a high vantage point. on the top of a hill, or on the roof of a skyscraper.
Heck, this sounds like something an assassin might use. . . zap someone in their office, from blocks away. . . .
Tell that to the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549.
Think you just overplayed your hand.
That’s the general rule. Of course, it depends how close you are to airports and obstructions.
Now, tell me how a bunch of featherlight drones are going to do more damage than a flock of fat geese.
/johnny
When I was in highschool 60 years ago the mexican gangs were killing each other with knives, chains, and 2x4s.
Now the grandkids of these same gang bangers are killing each other with guns and dealing dope!
Close enough that 121.5 is always programmed on one of the radios. I like to know when a B-52 is making one of the dreaded 7 engine landings, or a C-135 has to feather a prop.
/johnny
You know, libs are sneaky bastards. They think they're pulling one over on us by continually associating the 2nd Amendment with hunting.
They think if they do this long enough, that most Americans will no longer associate the 2nd with its original and ONLY purpose, which is to ensure that The People have the physical means to resist a rogue, tyrannical government.
Once the people have lost sight of the Framers' original intent behind the RKBA, it becomes easy to restrict what sort of firearms are "reasonable" for Americans to own. After all, they're only for hunting purposes, right?
God, I hate the left!
/johnny
That's a fair point.
“That equipment is made to withstand 500MPH bird strikes.”
The extensive history of bird-strike crashes disproves this.
If two Canada geese could bring down a KC-135 (Yukla-27) on the runway getting sucked in right at VR and kill all on board with no pilot error (they were had no chance) and Sully Sullivan’s plane could be brought down by those same birds as a more recent example at higher altitude, then I expect that well placed mini-helicopter drones in the turbofan could knock them out.
Here is a link to the Yukla-27 data recorder transcript:
http://aviation-safety.net/investigation/cvr/transcripts/cvr_yukla27.php
Here is the crash report:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19950922-0
Actually my research shown at the link in my tag line shows that a 747 was destroyed as a result on ingesting a kestrel, a truly tiny bird!
At my website I discuss how a 9 foot turbofan could be a gigantic target for a terrorist and I show a video if a mini-helicopter maintaining precise GPS controlled three-dimensional positioning...in a stiff crosswind to boot! The new enhanced GPS autopilots are extremely accurate...well within the diameter of a big jet turbofan.
“There’s a guy who had flown his RC glider to 498mph clocked with a radar gun. Might have hit 550mph when it wasn’t being clocked. I certainly wouldn’t want to be hit with that!”
I have seen that and it is awesome, but lethal in the wrong hands. The kinetic power on impact of the grapefruit-sized titanium mini-turbofan powering it would go through an airliner turbofan like a cannonball, for example.
That is actually the premise of “the runway kill zone”! (see tag line)
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