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Robot Balloon Escapes In Britain

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the skynet-with-a-paunch dept.

tjake writes "Theres an interesting story running about a intelligent robot balloon that escaped its handlers while being transported around the Magna Science Adventure Centre. "The flyborg has a computerised brain which allows it to avoid obstacles. " It was freed by "a very strong freak gust of wind which ripped the airship out of the hands of its handlers". I'm thinkin, is this a random mistake or the start of the attack?"

1 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. Always remember to call a marksman by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Pink Floyd could have used your services:

    Perhaps our most publicised fiasco at Hipgnosis Design was the Great Pig
    Escape, early 1977. Pink Floyd had rejected our suggestion for their
    ANIMALS cover in favour of Roger Waters' idea of a pig hovering over
    Battersea Power Station. Despite serious misgivings about such a notion
    (shades of Monty Python and the Goodies -- was it not intrinsically silly?)
    we offered to shoot the pictures and put the cover together. Contrary to
    our advice the band didn't want the pig "stripped in" which would allow us
    to photograph the pig anywhere, but wanted it shot for real, the pig
    actually floating above the power station. Thus the forty foot zeppelin was
    crated to London and assembled on location. Timetable as follows: ....

    Day 2. Eleven still cameramen, eight man film crew, helicopter, one or two
    of the group, manager but no marksman (?). Pig launched successfully on
    bright clear morning. Hauled slowly up side of building, everyone snapping
    away. Near the top, betwixt the towers, a fateful gust of wind. The pig
    turned suddenly, broke mooring cable and lurched rapidly towards the
    heavens. No one had told the marksman to return. The pig sailed away and
    was lost from sight in five minutes. Absolute horrors. All that time and
    money and it had simply disappeared in front of our eyes. The police
    trailed it to thirty thousand feet and then gave up, the cowards. That
    evening, the dirigible came down on a Kent farm. The farmer was reported to
    have said he thought it "a bit unusual"! Actually the Press made a bundle
    out of the whole thing: "flying pig interrupts international flight
    patterns," "weird UFO spotted," "flying pig heads for home" (it was made in
    Holland). But the Floyd don't give up that easily and the roadies rescued
    it from Kent, repaired the puncture and we started again.