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Throw-to-Launch Spy Planes
mahonri5 writes "Miniture spy planes, developed by BYU and the Air Force, weighing only 3 oz, and having a 24 foot wingspan. Launched by throwing them into the air. And if that wasn't cool enough, you can fly them by laptop, PDA, or voice command. It does all the dirty work of flying on board, and you just tell it where to go. Best part, they've already been deployed. More at some Utah newspapers: here(1), here(2), or here(3)."
3oz and a 24 FOOT wingspan? something doesn't add up.
"Miniture spy planes, developed by BYU and the Air Force, weighing only 3 oz, and having a 24 foot wingspan."
;)
Damn, 24 feet, eh? Not that miniature...
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
What? I've been making hand-launched planes that weigh less than 3 oz, with less than a single foot wing span that flew on their own as far as needed for years -- of course, my teachers hated me.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
till Taliban finds out about them.
Index was outside the bounds of the array.
24ft? 3oz? We should use that material for the space elevator!
-Sean
Making a plane with a 24 foot wingspan that weighed only 3 oz, now that WOULD be impressive.
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.
I live where forest fires are quite common, and I can guarantee you that nothing this fragile would *ever* survive in the turbulent atmosphere generated around any decent sized fire.
:)
For that matter, at only 3 ounces, a craft like this would be unlikely to survive or be controllable in any place where there is a prevailing wind over ten mph or where there are decent updrafts (cities).
I'd also love to know how they managed to get a CCD camera with decent lens (decent resolution) packed into less than 3 ounces (not sure how much less, but it's got to be a significant fraction of the total weight). I want one of those
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
"weighing only 3 oz, and having a 24 foot wingspan"
;-)
I was expecting to see a plane made of carbon nanotubes to achieve this...instead I see a plane that looks like the ones they sell at Toys'R'Us.
I want my money back, damnit!
-psy
Here's something you may not know. At just under 30K students, BYU is the largest private university in the nation.
Get the toy manufacturers involved... if they can make a talking teddy bear for under $10, they should be able to make an unmanned drone that costs an order of magnitude more to shoot down than it does to produce -- thus effectively either successfully spying on everything our opponents do, or driving them into bankruptcy.
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
...they already been deployed? You call that good new? it made me shudder involuntarily, considering if i too, at last would not be better off starting to wear a tinfoil hat.
This one is more like 4 feet, unless Reed Christiansen is a very short.
The the AeroVironment Pointer is a throw-to-launch spyplane that's been used since 1988. It's a bit bigger than this new toy, and is carried in a backpack. Special Operations types have been using the Pointer for years. It's great for looking over the next hill to find out what the enemy is up to. Flight duration is about an hour, although they have to use silver-cadmium batteries to get that.
If you look at the photos, you can see people who dwarf the 24'-wingspan planes!
Who knew Utah was inhabited by a race of giants?!?! I sure didn't.
Huh. Learn something new every day.
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