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New Draganflyer Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
John Jorsett writes "I've long lusted for the Draganflyer indoor-outdoor radio-controlled helicopter, but now I've got a new object of desire. Since seeing it flown on The History Channel's 'Tactical to Practical' show last September, I've been waiting for the Draganflyer Predator, modeled on the military aircraft of the same name. Electrically powered, the $750 Draganflyer Predator can be equipped with video cameras and a GPS receiver to carry out radio-controlled or pre-programmed self-guided surveillance missions of up to 20 miles range, the company claims. Time to buy my own UAV and find out what's really going on over there in Area 51."
See previous post
If you preprogrammed it it should continue to fly. Unless they jam the GPS frequency, too.
(\(\
(=_=) Bani!
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Plus, they have a restricted ground zone the size of Switzerland around the base - these things only have a 20 mile range.
It is only rated as being able to lift 16 ounces. Not nearly enough for a bomb.
-You may license this sig for only $6.99.
-- http://www.swcp.com/~hudson/
Have you seen some of the miniature RCs being created by hobbyists?
Henry Pasquet has a 2.6 gram airplane that flies at walking speed. You can see it in the Feb 2004 issue of FlyRC magazine, on page 162.
Soon you won't even need to get high up to do the recon, you'll be able to navigate through buildings and populated areas with machines that are incredibly hard to spot.
Whether that will lead to a crackdown on RC hobbies in the future remains to be seen.
Actually there are two GPS systems, the civilian one that you and I and the bad guys can use by plunking down a couple of bux for a receiver, and the military version, which gives more precise measurements and is encrypted.
The two systems are seperate, and the civilian GPS can be (not sure if it's actually been done yet) shut down when the gubbermint feels it necessary. Also they are able to introduce errors in the civilian GPS data stream to knock the precision even further when Uncle Sam feels it prudent. They can also turn it off just in a certain area, for example, the middle east...
If I remember right having a GPS on board could make this product considered as guilded missile.
Don't be suprised if someone wearing dark glasses and jack boots showing up ready to give you a rectal exam.
F-18. The reason is that the government sold it as scrap, but neglected to cut it up first. Some guy bought it for 25 cents a pound, and thinks it can be made flyable for $9 million. The FBI has 'persuaded' him not to sell it to non-Americans, and to keep it in the U.S. And there's still talk in goverment circles about taking it back anyway.
Engage geek drool mode - affordable uber geek toys. At current exchange rates the camera model is only 400GBP. For any old R/C aircraft that's pretty good - for a self controlled one complete with camera that's goddamn amazing :D
It's just a shame I don't actually own 400
Hmm, how much do you know about GPS?
I don't feel like actually researching the issue to come up with a definitive answer, but I thought it was more a matter of the military adding pseudo-random noise when they want to; their own detectors can remove it, civilian detectors can't.
But I might be wrong :-)
(hmm, they would still be able to add pseudonoise in certain areas, since the satellites cover different areas...)
It looks like an additional 5 grand for the 2028 model. Now they might offer a package deal but it still isn't going to be cheap.
There are.
why can you still relatively easily buy a F-15 on Ebay?
You can't. Perhaps you are referring to the story about the F-18 for sale on ebay. That auction was cancelled before it ended. I don't personally know why, but I imagine one likely reason is ebay not wanting to be on the hook for assisting the sale of full mil-spec hardware which, by government regulations, must be "de-milled" before being sold to the public.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
If the US wants to disadvantage other countries in a conflict they don't worry about civilian vs military GPS, they just jam it with aircraft.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"Time to buy my own UAV and find out what's really going on over there in Area 51."
You could get one to the top of Tikaboo Peak and launch it, no problem. They may or may not catch the model, but with the sensors they have all over around the area, they'd definitely catch you, both trudging around on the ground and the radio transmitter you'd be using. The same, though less stringent, warning would go for using one to view any sensitive area. The end result would be going to jail, and could well end up with the goobermint trying to make RC aircraft illegal, or at least heavily licensed, under PATRIOT II. Seriously.
They've already been hard at work trying to outlaw model rockets engines. They're under the impression these can be taken apart and used to make a bomb. Technically, they're correct, but it'd be far easier and cheaper to get shotgun shell reloading material and make it from that. Rocket engine propellant is designed to burn at a certain speed, not as fast as possible, and so makes a lousy explosive. That's not stopping them.
The ATF tried asking model rocket engine manufacturers to supply them with some engines for testing. All refused. So they came up with a court order, forcing one of the manufacturers to supply some engines. They complied.
ATF rented a van and set out to test these engines. They got some rockets, went out to a remote area, and started launching them. Out of the back of the van. Which contained the rest of the engines. The rest of the engines caught fire. The rented van burned to the ground. (Details, and confirmation of same by the owner of the company forced to supply the engines, available from Google Groups usenet archive for newsgroup rec.models.rockets).
They were enjoying their newfound freedom to "protect" at all costs way too much before. Now they're also humiliated, so they're tryng all the harder. If someone were to take some of the widely available still- or movie-camera carrying rockets and launch those from Tikaboo Peak, there's no doubt in my mind "America's 87th Most Popular Hobby" would be grounded without even the comfort of having lost out in a congressional vote.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I gave up the smelly/expensive RC hobby a while ago though, and the last time I flew a plane it wasn't even real.
(*ARFs == Almost Ready to Fly kits)
--
Power to the Peaceful
If you want to see something really cool, check out AeroSonde, an ultra-long-range model airplane.
I have fantasized about loading up a model with flyers and then leafletting north korea or some other freedom-of-information deprived hole.
I think the whole Area 6413 has been debunked many times. Point by point and Google can help too.
Post: Sigged, for your pleasure.
Its about 70g for a single round of SPAS12/Benelli/M203 ammunition. (A 12 guage shell).
:D
Now, when you consider the autopilot for the predator only weighs 10g, that 70g shell looks pretty heavy. - The predators battery is probably 70g so you'd probably be hard pushed to balance/make it fly.
Then there's the issue of how to trigger, rather than just deliver the shell. You'd need some sort of trigger.
Now a complete shotgun mechanism would weight a hell of a lot (probably as much as the predator) so you'd need something else - probably 1 of three options:
1) A mechanical pin trigger which is activated by a servo. Drawbacks: can't be fired remotely so very inaccurate.
2) Same as above but the craft flies to a GPS point then dives in to strike the ground (and a firing pin). Drawbacks: Hard to target with GPS and minimal shot-dispersal on the ground.
3) An electronic (Battery and filament) trigger but you still can't target remotely and a shell fired without a (heavy) barrel is very inefective.
All of the above assume that you'd want to be out of radio range (hence retaliation range).
Your best option would just be to fit it with a sharp point and try to hit someone in the head with it (for all the luck you'd have)
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
They wouldn't shut it down. There are too many mission critical uses of GPS now, from police/fire/ambulance to air navigation and commercial shipping.
This used to be standard policy, but as of May 1, 2000 Selective Availability (SA) was turned off.
This is more like what would happen today if they deemed it necessary.
The date SA was turned off was May 1, 2000.
As far as precision, any standard handheld today can be accurate to 3m. The weak link in most low-end GPS models is the clock they use, usually a cheap quartz clock.
With WAAS, 1m accuracy is easy. But for 10cm accuracy like you mentioned, 2 antennas aren't going to do it, since they're both unknown points. Using survey grade GPS equipment with a base station over a known geographical point and another roving unit can get you 1 cm accuracy.
This kind of system
...has been available for decades. This is nothing more than a regular R/C control system built into a Predator looking body. R/C planes have had the ability to drop small loads, on command, forever. Little charges, dropshapes, parachute loads...
This is nothing new. Cool looking, but not really new
It's a toxic waste dump. Not much more to see there. It stays top secret, or becomes a superfund site costing billions to clean up.
There's probably a few cool planes there too!
Open source- the greatest equalizer mankind has ever seen.
I gave up the smelly/expensive RC hobby a while ago though, and the last time I flew a plane it wasn't even real.
Electrics have come a LONG way in a short time...takes away the 'smelly' part of RC and some of the newer flying wings are almost indestructable, and cheap to fix if they do destruct.
Not to say you can't still go for the smelly and expensive just that you don't have to anymore.