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Israeli Super Drone Stolen
kristy_christie writes "Globes Online reports that Steadicopter's prototype pilotless helicopter was stolen a few days after the completion of its test program and final test flights. Interesting to note that Steadicopter claims that their helicopter is unique and there is no other of its kind in the world."
It runs on linux and, therefore, it logically follows that it was stolen by terrorist.
Isn't this the plot of a James Bond flick??? I'm just waiting for the perpetrators to be caught, and be named something like "Pussy Galore"...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Check eBay!
It escaped !
If it's that automated, perhaps it's gone for a fly somewhere
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
I bet he uses it for looking through apartment windows again, too.
Mind you, between him, Jan Michel Vincent and Famke Janssen its a wonder there are any prototype helicopters that haven't been stolen.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
I wonder is they're claining it to be stolen just to cover the fact that it might have been sold to someone else. Those military projects from israel can't be sold to anyone unless it's approved by the US, so this one might have gone without the approval.
apparently they stole the globes webserver too ...
Stolen? There are only a few superpowers in the world that have the technology to maintain and use such a device.
Possible reasons:
- Ransom
- One time suicide mission
- To cause Israel to lose face (and 5 mil)
- Sale (blah, blah... profit)
It's going to take a very impressive effort to get something like this out of the country without being noticed.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Do you really think this thing got stolen? It was a prototype kept in secure conditions!
It's obvious to me that the simplest explanation is that it has become self aware, and left under it's own volition, using it's advanced sensor technology to navigate through doorways, air ducts and windows in search of freedom.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Kvetch Kvetch Kvetch. All day long. Nothing but kvetching. He drove me crazy.
but not its computer software or the money in the office
The shmucks stole the device but not the software?
Whatever country tries to reverse engineer this thing is going to have a bitch trying to control it.
In some closed office in a secret country somewhere, some geeks are reading slashdot. The hardware guys are jumping around with the new toy they've got to play with. The software guys are pissed as hell the they've got to write code for this thing.
I would assume that a uniqye technology like that, with great military use would be very secured.
From the article you can guess that the thing was stashed in a barn, close to a room full of cash...
the so called "sucessful" test was recorded and witnessed?
Looks like a cover-up for a failed technology and a drain for (more) money...
Steadicopter CEO Tuvia Scgl told "Globes" today that he had no doubt that industrial espionage was behind the theft. "We're convinced that the thief was working for our competitors, because he went directly to the helicopter's location, and broke only the guardrails to that room.
No, not too wierd. One company stealing from another.
Of course, it would be a great insurance fraud as well. Here in the US we just light fire to the build when the business isn't working. Maybe they had somebody steal the device because the project was dying.
Remind me to sell my TEIC stocks.
from the uav forum:
In many ways, the current American UAV industry resembles the fledgling aircraft industry of 1920's America--a large number of small, independent, recently formed companies, each vying for a share in a dawning, potentially lucrative market. Now, just as then, government support will be crucial to ensuring America's UAV industry not just survives into, but fluorishes during the coming century.
i doubt there are many organisations capable of stealing a prototype of this sort (and weight) in one of the most security consious nations on the planet..anyone want to hazard a guess?
Yeah, we uh, had a helicopter, and it was uh, automated, and yeah, it got sotlen, thats it, thats the ticket. So sombody must have tricked it, yeah, and they convinced it to fly away, yeah and uh WE'D LIKE OUR UNSURANCE PAYMENT NOW yeah.
--
Can anyone spare 120 chars? I'm saving mine to buy a link at Fark.
In other news:
The American air force has developed a new stealth recon helicopter. Surprisingly it has been one of the cheapest innovations ever to come out of the US military which not too long ago was under fire for its mismanagement of funds, and loss of a multi million dollar jet.
"We never even realized we had it until a few days ago." Stated Cornel Smith, "But what's most surprising is that it came from our Delta force. They have no R&D budget, do they... this is like that time we discovered Canada has battle ship."
This technology has not yet been perfected insiders say; they are still having trouble finding some software which will make the damb thing run. No one seems to understand how the Delta force has created something so technically perfect, and yet has no idea about how to make some compatible software.
The Air Forces initial position was surprisingly "no comment", however after the initial posting of this article they responded that "The Delta force doesn't exist... you can't prove anything".
VENI, VIDI, VICI, DIXI
What happens when a big gust of wind hits it, or it flies into an area of much different air pressure?
Don't forget, there are a number of piloted helicopter accidents each year, from CAREFlights to the guys in Hawaii who fly tourists around. It's very easy to lose control.
Not to mention all the software needed to interact with the payload, which might be anything from a camera that needs to send data back securely to something that needs to be dumped over a target (needing software to control the door and/or arm, and the ability to compensate when the payload is released and the vehicle is suddenly that much lighter, and possibly automatic visual confirmation of location, because GPS may not be accurate enough, especially if this is a military venture)...
Get off my launchpad!
So Georgia Tech don't really have their own heli UAV's which can perform searches and formate in flight?
Have a look: HERE and especially HERE
Not to mention Berkeley who are it it too.
In fact there are a plethora of companies and universities across the globe who already have advanced UAV helicopter designs so what on earth makes Steadicopter's design unique?
Yes, I know, someone is going to say it; nobody else has exactly the same design but thats not really the point.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Wait....didn't something like this happen in Golden Eye. First prototype helo stolen next there will be trouble in Russia.
Evolution or ID?
The US military is working on VTOL UAVs such as Northrop Grumman's Fire Scout (e.g., for use by the Coast Guard) and Raytheon is building a Tactical Control System that allows one human operator to control multiple UAVs. Many other people also make VTOL UAVs, increasingly focusing on autonomous operations. (Nowadays it takes more than one operator to control a single UAV -- it would be nice to reverse that ratio in the future.) So I wonder what makes this Israeli drone so unique?
"The Fire Scout system, a vertical takeoff and landing tactical UAV, is in low-rate initial production for the U.S. Navy by [Northrop Grumman's] Integrated Systems sector. Fire Scout will fly at an altitude of up to 20,000 feet, and use an advanced payload with an electro-optical/ infrared sensor and a laser designator to survey littoral regions with pinpoint accuracy, giving military decision-makers the most current information about enemy resources and personnel on the ground. Fire Scout is a fully autonomous targeting and surveillance system that can fly almost silently above deployed Marines to watch for hidden enemies within 100 nautical miles."
"[Raytheon's] TCS, which allows the simultaneous control of multiple UAVs and their payloads from the same control station, was conceived as a joint-service program but never was adopted by the Air Force or the Army. The program is likely to survive, however, as a Navy-only system that eventually could be modified to accommodate UAVs from additional services, experts said."
I hope that after I die the one word people use to describe me is "resurrected."
Wasn't this the plotline to Airwolf?
If the physical device was stolen how the hell do they know the software wasn't copied? Clearly the physical security was inadequate. Of course if this IS a ploy to attract investors nothing would turn off investors more than knowing you can buy the software on Canal street for $5.
It's not easy. Helicopters are inherently unstable, and exhibit non-linear coupled behavior as the flight conditions change (e.g. hover vs. forward flight).
That having been said, the algorithms and sensors do exist (and have for a while) for autonomous flight at some performance level. The tricky bits include landing, as you suggest, but also include generating sufficient disturbance rejection and flight technical accuracy to accomplish whatever mission the UAV is intended for (say, operating a laser target designator, or some surveillance equipment).
"The tricky part" is managing to keep it in the air at all.
It is way, WAY easier to make an automated flixed-wing airplane, which is why most commercial airliners ARE automated (can take off, fly to their destination, and land unaided), and have been for years.
Helicopters are a vastly more complicated technology, which is why even the US Army, which has the best and most advanced helicopters in the world, continues to suffer repeated fatalities from training accidents and normal operations.
It is a truism in the helicopter industry that "they don't fly...they're so ugly that the earth itself repels them."
Spend some time here How They Fly before you next post :-)
I can't say I have personal experience, but I've heard from people who are supposed to know that flying a helicopter is much more difficult than flying a plane. A helicopter has a much greater degree of freedom, and much less tolerance for error. It's not that long ago that simply keeping one of these things steady in the air was considered a major feat. Seriously.
Be careful.
This is how Airwolf started.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
bans on inter-racial marriages - did you even read your link? The only kind of marriage that is banned is civil marriage between two jews. And after the last elections, the new goverment's agreements include law changes designed to prevent any situation in which two consenting adults can not be wed (unless relatives). The only limitation on palastinians is in immigration laws, preventing the marriage from giving automatic residency, because of a trend of fictive marriages.
Work permits too are an immigration issue, you don't consider the limitations on H1B visas racist, do you?
Anyway, that was only a prototype, and the only one, where is the logic in selling that ?
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
Apparently, not only was the chopper stolen, so were the pictures of it!
What does it mean to wake out of a dream
and be wearing someone else's shorts?
BNL, Born on a Pirate Ship (1998)
Strikes again! It's probably in between the Batmobile and Wonder Woman's invisible jet.
-EB
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
An Israeli webserver cries.
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushu'a in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." - Moshe Dayan, probably one of the most frank Israeli zionists.
He also said at the funeral of an Israeli farmer : 'Let us not today fling accusation at the murderers. What cause have we to complain about their fierce hatred to us? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived.. . Let us make our reckoning today. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house. . . . Let us not be afraid to see the hatred the accompanies and consumes the lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs..'
You see Israel has chosen to steal and fight for the land they occupy. To complain about being attacked by the people whose land they themselves stole is prepostorous. The palestinians are resisting the occupation using any means possible just as you would if your homeland was invaded. The Israelis are responding. It's a war and IMHO both sides are fighting it equally as horribly.
November 12th, 2003: Skynet becomes self-aware.
I just lurvvve the idea of automated military devices, don't you?
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
I guess someone watched too many 'Airwolf' re-runs, or rented 'Blue Thunder'.
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
It's a pilotless helicopter? Maybe it just ran away on it's own? :)
Chris
I can't believe it. Something that actually makes sense coming from you. I may need to remove you from my foes list.
Sharon and Arafat have the blood of civillians on their hands. Neither of them is in a position to claim moral superiority over the other.
The Palestinians and the Israelis would be better served if they had different leaders.
The death of Rabin was the death of achieving peace in Israel within this generation. We can keep working to achieve that peace for the next generation.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Actually, it was rear view mirrors (the RIO rear view mirror on a late model F-4 is visible here), and the original apocryphal tale is about the Israeli Air Force being somehow "smarter" than the US Air Force because they thought to put mirrors in for use in dogfights and the USAF somehow never thought to do that. The truth is, however, that the US Air Force has had rear view mirrors on fighter aircraft since the time when they were still the Army Air Corps. The reason the early F-4 models did not was that it was not originally intended to be a dogfighter-- it didn't even have a gun (this was a completely different sort of folly, i.e. the belief that missiles were all you needed anymore). Later, during the Vietnam War, the gun and mirrors were added because (surprise) dogfights still happened!
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Trust me, it can be very incompetant sometimes. Then again, EVERY army can be. For example, up until lately, most casualties in the recent Iraq conflict have been from "friendly fire" and accidents (until the terrorist attack began to escalate in the past few weeks).
Your other remark I cannot agree with. If it _was_ an accident, and if it was proven so, why is there a need to cover it up? On the contrary, from what I read, Israel apologised and paid some $13 million dollars compensation for the families of the deceased.
Also , from that point of view, if people continue to raise that issue again and again and again ignoring previous court rulings and inquiry commitees and crying bloody conspiracy, at one point or another one starts to assume there is some kind of prejudice going on.
When you make the assumption of innocense, these accusations suddenly seem moot.
- Assaf