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A robotic aircraft crossed over a year ago

http://tam.plannet21.com/

Anyone else remember the TAMs Model Airplane project from 2003? Similar idea as the Rutgers project, but they did it with a model airplane (and I'm guessing no where near the funding dollars that Rutgers has).

For all the people making fun of how technology levels the playing field, all you need to do is look at how the Iraqis use cell phones to remotely detonate IEDs. Apparently other technologies are being adapted and used as well.

Think you need an actual rocket for a guided missile? How about a big model airplane and a GPS? Did you know that one group of hobbyists a couple of years ago built a model airplane that flew autonomously across the Atlantic ocean? It used a GPS, gyros, and had a satellite radio uplink to report its location http://tam.plannet21.com/.

How about model airplanes that give you the view from the cockpit for remote piloting to the intended target? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2237947353453839215

All the little gadgets and gizmos that are out there give the creative terrorist a lot of possibilities. Think this article is sensationalistic and stupid? Think again. This stuff isn't hard to do any more.

Yeah, I probably should have put "your sig:" in my quote but I didn't think of it... :P Sig changes don't affect old posts, though, do they? Glad you liked the analysis, though, regardless. ;) Hmm... to keep this on topic, somehow... ah, I know! :P The whole thing reminds me of the story a few weeks ago on the Trans-Atlantic Model. I'd think that it would be easier than that in a couple of respects, for instance less stringent weight restrictions and lower power consumption (such that solar panels, or a generator dragging a propeller in the water might be usable).

Or even better go a bit further than that during mid summer and then it makes no difference how fast you go because you'll be in 24 hour sunlight.

Storing energy is the key. You might be able to store it in batteries like these people have done, or store it in your altitude and just let it glide down at night -- but that would require a really efficient plane. This looks to be a really efficient plane, but it's obviously not quite efficient enough to do that.

That would be cool if they'd try to fly it across the Atlantic -- it would be the first electric plane to do so, and the first solar powered plane to do so. TAM 5 took 39 hours to cross the Atlantic, and this plane was up longer than that -- but it's a lot slower too. TAM 5 averaged about 48 mph, and I'll bet this plane is less than half that.

Your right nobody could use an Aircraft to strike at a US target. Not in our life time...
Yea right.
I am not really worried about an ICBM or bomber. Those we can handle but what about a hijacked cargo plane or even a light plane filled with explosives, or even a small UAV like this one http://tam.plannet21.com/?

The US air defenses are so poor that one September 11 we couldn't intercept any of the planes that hit the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Even after the World Trade Center got hit a plane go through to the Pentagon and would have gotten through to any building in the capital. So no I don't think that the US air defense is good enough. For goodness sakes at least put some SAMs around our military bases.

Okay I guess you have never heard of a UAV. How about this little toy http://tam.plannet21.com/. It doesn't take much of an explosive payload to damage or destroy a fully fueled plane.
I hate to even post something like this for fear it will give the law makers ideas but even if you scale it up to the size of a small homebuilt like a Quickie or LongEZE you have an effective cruise missile.

You ask and I can show you options.

A 5 kg model plane with a custom autopilot did make such a journey in August 2003. In a little less than 39 hours it covered the 1883 miles between Cape Spear, Newfoundland, Canada and Mannin Beach, Ireland. See http://tam.plannet21.com/ for details.

http://tam.plannet21.com/ - a site that documents a flight across the atlantic of a model airplane using GPS. Just change model airplane to a metal cylinder.

As for the autopilot, these two pictures show what looks like an awfully standard transmitter. Perhaps they've created some sort of spiffy autopilot, but they don't appear to be using it here. But even autopilots aren't new -- people have been doing that for years too, from systems that just automatically right the plane as needed, to full fledged auto-pilots where you just tell the plane what to do on a computer. And here is something in between -- a plane that crossed the Atlantic, where people controlled it directly only for takeoff and landing.

In any event, even the planes themselves look pretty standard. This one looks like your basic flying wing (Zagi makes a very popular model) and this just looks like your basic small electric plane with a V-tail.

More details here

Check out the FAQ (with really cool pic near bottom of page).

Er...they control the planes from the ground.

Er...No they don't

Just look at this picture. The brown guy on the far left is obviously a TERRORIST. They are probably testing this as a method of biochemical weapon delivery. ARREST THEM NOW.