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DIY Cruise Missile Grounded
PSaltyDS writes "The DIY Cruise Missile project from New Zealand has been previously covered on /., but the BBC now reports that Bruce Simpson has been forced to shutdown by his government. His project web site says 'The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.'"
The truth is rarely as simple as people (you?) believe.
I can't speak for this gentleman, but I can speak for myself. In the US, even if you believe you are an employee of a company, and you believe they are witholding your taxes as they should be, you are personally liable if they didn't.
That's the situation I found myself in, and thus, the reason I ended up owing 5 figures. I'm sure if the government had something personally against me, they could work that debt into something criminal.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Here's an article that was in the NZ Herald (our main newspaper) a few days ago. Interesting to see the differences in wording between this article and the BBC one, even in his comments.
e ct ion=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3537971
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thes
In this world, the government takes taxes, and not only does it not protect its people, it actively harms them.
The taxation system in the West is not even a protection racket anymore. It's little more than an intraveneous feeding system for the elite.
I wouldn't mind paying taxes if they were A) Fairly exacted, and B) Spent on projects I bloody-well agree with. These days tax evasion is almost your duty as a responsible human being! Allowing yourself to be fed on by evil is no different than agreeing to participate in evil.
Robin Hood, where are you. . ?
-FL
His work has further implications....Uncle Sam is spending millions of dollars in building Cruise Missiles.. A 5K (+explosives+nav. system) cruise missile? ha! What happens if a U.S. company hires this guy, and builds a cruise missile for the army, thousands of times cheaper than the ones from the big defense firms? Management would p00p their pants...
I'd say this isn't rocket science, but I suppose it is.
Still, there's no magic. There's no reason any other intelligent, motivated person or group couldn't do the same project. Killing this project will have no positive long term effect. It may stop some "bad" people from buying these, but it sure won't stop bad people from building their own.
This is like every other technology. You can attempt to stop it, but it will continue to develop. So we (the US) happily agree there should be no more nuclear testing, but that's really only because we can afford to buy/build supercomputers to do nuke sims. It's all so... hypocritical.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
The New Zealand government has moved aggressively to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which appear to be in breach of the law.
Oh, wow, really? Even though it's not technically illegal, I wouldn't be too shocked to find out that the authorities wanted to have a word or two with me if I was building a V2 in my backyard:
"Oh, no, officer, this rocket is for humanitarian purposes only! And as a gift to all mankind, I've posted the plans online so that other humanitarians can build rockets of their own! What could be wrong with that?"
It was a really cool project, but come on. Who didn't see this coming?
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
If you want to do something that a large number of government officials will not approve of:
1) Pay your taxes.
1A) Don't break other laws - particulary obscure ones.
2) Do not work for the government or a government contractor.
-- $G
Ordinarily, I'd contemptuously dismiss any toothless rugby hooligan who claimed to have duplicated some of your deadly and sophisticated military hardware in the back of his yurt.
However, he's built a lot of those cool jet engines, which means his claim to have built a cruise missile is definitely credible. The New Zealand...ian government clearly thinks his claims are credible (unless they really are just prosecuting him for tax evasion, which is always a possibility people.) They might be going persecuting him for talking to the Iranians rather than because they think his missile works, and they'd still refuse to comment for Security reasons.
If you read his web page he says he's finished the missile except for some trivial details (not his exact phrasing.) My experience working with engineers (I am a Scientist, not any sort of MBA, before any of you start) leads me to believe that these "trivial details" may be less of a paint job and more of a profound deficiency that would prevent the thing from actually working. Of course, I'm just speculating here.
If they really are trying to squelch his right to free speech with the tax charge - he should give all his missile design documents to some outfit that will distribute them far and wide, raisethefist.com or something. That'll show the guv'mint what for.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
How could one stop research in so important area of science called rocket engines?
How a government could to that?
There seems to be some kind of plot in it
(from Bruce Simpson's page):
The strange thing is that just a matter of months ago, they told me I could export the very same technology to Iran -- despite the fact that it is widely considered to be a terrorist sponsor and similar exports are prohibited in the USA.
And then the government decided shut it down.
Note also that israeli x prize team recruits serious brainpower.
If things are not about money (or sex) then politics must be involved.
I hope that such a genius person as Bruce will either join Xprize or find another way to continue his very important for science work on rocket engines.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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Did you know that the IRS will not turn over HOW you got your money?
You could put down 'Bank Robbery', they don't care, as long as they get the money.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It has to do with that Fifth Ammendment thingy. You can't be compelled to testify against yourself. Since you are compelled to provide financial information for tax purposes that information cannot be used to prosecute a criminal charge.
This is not to say that certain authorities won't watch you very, very closely afterwards though. Saying that something is not admisable in court isn't at all the same thing as saying that inadmissable evidence can't be used as leverage to gain admisable evidence. Many have been convicted of crimes for not paying attention to this fact.
The infamous New York City madam who made millions from her house of considerable repute was caught and convicted, of promoting prostitution. A fairly minor charge. As I recal she served something like 18 months.
Why? She learned the lesson of Al Capone and payed her taxes scrupulously. Had business permits, Workman's Comp insurance for her employees, in fact ran it as a completely legitimate business, except, of course, for the fact that her trade was itself illegal.
When they finally got her it was only for that illegality that they could prosecute.
Number one rule. Never violate any law except those you explicitly set out to violate. It's daft to get nailed for an otherwise successful robbery because you sped away from the scene with a taillight out and an expired vehicle registration.
KFG
Neither baseballs nor ballistic missiles follow a parabolic path. They follow an eliptical path, an orbit that intersects the Earth's surface (barring atmospheric effects, of course). In order to get a parabolic path, the object needs to be moving at exactly the escape velocity (See here for details.)
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
No it wouldn't. A GPS from an light aircraft cannot successfuly navigate a missle 10ft (that's Feet) off the ground, at Mach 0.8. That's how fast and how low a cruise missle cna fly. That's why they're so lethal, you can't see them on Radar, and by the time you have visual its too late.
Also, range is a big issue. Cruise missles have 100s of miles of range. A little DIY might get 100 tops, nothign to worry about.
no thats how fast/high *SOME* cruise missles can fly.
a V1 (generally considered the first cruise missile) had nothing like what you're talking about.
light aircraft have ranges heading into many hundreds of miles.
and if launched in time of peace (as per terrorist attack) and kept in unregulated airspace could get within seconds of it's target without radar being an issue.
New York and Washington in time of high alert might be able to respond in time, but off the top of my head i can't think of another city in the world (baghdad?) that would be protected.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
Hired a CPA to handle his accounting and taxes. Turned out the bastid pocketed the withholding.
Guess what? Willie had to pay it all anyway, and the CPA got off without penalty. He be broke, and the IRS wanted to jail Willie.
And Willie is still a Democrat.
So right now I'm living in a cold, drafty, leaky house that I rent for US$70 a week (so you can imagine how crappy it is), I'm not allowed to be self-employed, there are no jobs going for a jet-engine designer and even if I wanted to flip burgers, the town where I'm living has just suffered a mill-closure that has put a whole lot of people on the unemployment line. It's not going to be a very nice Christmas this year :-(
I may be crazy, but I think that you should set up a paypal account and let the community help you. I'm sure that many people would donate whatever's been lost between the couch's cushions and it could add up to a helpful amount. I've said it before; small donations are the way of the future!
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
You want the routes to be variable, if you just fly in a bunch of missiles using the same routes ala the 1991 Gulf Conflict, you'll get some smart arse planting a great big wire mesh across a street and net them. Quite an exciting catch I'd imagine though .. "Ma, it was |---this---| big - honest!"
Range also doesn't mean much when I can launch one from my garage just down the street from the target or from my local airfield. Admittedly, that'd be a bit of a waste of a cruise missile, but you get the point. One of the reasons you want a long range on cruise missiles if that you don't want the hugely expensive launch and control platform being anywhere near anything remotely dangerous.
I helped design one of the engines commonly used on US cruise missiles in the early eighties, and it was fairly obvious 20 years ago that a DIY cruise missile was quite an achievable goal, requiring only slightly more sophistication than the average EAA homebuilt airplane. The guidance issue is the biggest one (you could adapt a commercially available autopilot system for control purposes), but the wonderful thing about doing a cruise missile that doesn't have to penetrate USSR airspace during wartime is that you can use GPS -- possible then, almost trivial now given off-the-shelf hardware. I outlined a novel back then where a couple of out-of-work aerospace engineers built such a device for import/export purposes (the intent being to fly low over the Gulf Coast and drop 100 kilos of a suitably valuable substance after you ascertained you were really alone in the drop zone.) The plot twist was to have been having the project hijacked for more nefarious ends.
In any case, a small team of talented individuals could put something impressive together these days for less than the cost of a luxury car, and it would easily penetrate current US air defenses. Why do you think Lockheed is hard at work on the high-altitude blimp/advanced radar platform?
Here's an idea Bruce. Put a banner up on your web site allowing a media organisation to bid to buy the missile (to cover your debts) and employ you to test it (extra pocket money). Given that they will own it, they will have exclusive rights to the story and can conduct the test in secrecy. It would be the most spectacular news story of the month, especially if it worked. The payoff in advertising/onselling revenue (and publicity) for the media organisaion would be HUGE. Many time what they paid you, making it an irresistable commercial deal. Given their legal muscle and financial resources, tey might even want to equip the missile wth a crude warhead to provide some *really* spectaclar TV pictues.
Note: Don't sell the missile IP, just the missile.
Can't you see the missile buzzing along, resplendent in 'FOX' livery, finishing up with a huge fireball and bang. (Maybe even make the target a ton of high explosive! Claim it is a simulated oil tank!)
it was aimed and the fuel was calibrated to give range.
a cessna with gps, autopilot, and GPRS mobile phone data link would be far superior.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
With that said, what you need to do now is put in some kind of deadman's escrow the plans, etc for the missle, as well as for the pulsejet. This way - should you be "disappeared", these plans would be distributed far and wide (torrent files, p2p systems, freenet, usenet, etc) - spread the info.
I would try to immediately put up and have mirrored any and all ideas you have on the "building a pulsejet using parts from auto parts stores" or whatever it is called. No government can stop the flow of information - they can only stop the people. Look at things like DeCSS - enough people wanted it, now it is everywhere (and actually better stuff has superceeded it), the genie can't be stuffed back. You need to make your stuff the same.
I realize that you wanted to make a business out of this - and I sincerely wish you could. But in the here and now, you have two choices: let the secrets be silenced and/or die with you - or distribute them far and wide. Personally, I would rather give away something that I knew how to do, than to keep it in the hopes of profiting on it later - especially if the government has already shown me it doesn't care about my welfare by taking my house, etc - who says they won't take your life to take your ideas and knowledge from the world away?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
And your donation was much appreciated -- as have been the dozen or so others who have helped make things a little easier at this end.
I'm also truly humbled by the number of supportive emails I've received and I thank all those who have taken the time to send their words of support. I'll try to answer all of them -- since time is one of the few commodities I appear to have plenty of right now.
Terrorists don't need his project to make a weapon. They already have tech which can zoom in to a target mere feet off the ground and avoid being detected. There are several versions: compact, mid-size, luxury, minivan...