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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
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...
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.
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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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.'
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?
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.'
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.