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."

Comments

Re:Big Brother restrictions

[WeblionX]

If you preprogrammed it it should continue to fly. Unless they jam the GPS frequency, too.

Re:Could be dangerous

[coolmacdude]

It is only rated as being able to lift 16 ounces. Not nearly enough for a bomb.

Building your own UAV

[tramm]

John Jorsett writes:

Time to buy my own UAV

You can buy your own from Rotomotion, or build your own with the GPLed version of the Rotomotion software from autopilot.sourceforge.net. We've been working on it for a while and now have the hardware and the code to fly a helicopter or other rotocraft autonomously. And it's Free Software, too.

Re:Hmm.

[Cruciform]

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.

Re:Big Brother restrictions

[jjeffries]

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...

Re:Big Brother restrictions

[dj245]

Actually that is only partially correct. Bill Clinton signed into law an act that got rid of Selective Availability, the 'errors' that made civilian GPS less accurate. I'm not sure about the year, but maybe 1996. Before that, a few GPS companies made GPS hacks that got rid of Selective Availability anyway, so you could have greater accuracy anyway, it was just cheaper when Clinton had it turned off. Now, with widespread uptake of WAAS, and SA turned off (and a promise to never turn it on again) GPS accuracy in many cases can be 3m or less. With dual aerials 1m apart, you can have accuracy to 10cm. But I digress. Selective Availability is turned off. Its not coming back. Even if it does, the public sector has the technology to get around it, and a $750 technology 8 years ago probably is a lot cheaper now.

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.

You were joking. They don't.

[DynaSoar]

"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.