German Drone Darts Off and Hits Transport Plane On Ground
garymortimer writes "German tabloid newspaper The Bild has unearthed new video from a herons eye view of a 2010 taxi accident in Afghanistan. According to Bild a junior officer put the Heron into auto start and then was unable to stop it. The incident occurred at Mazar-i-Sharif on Mar. 17, 2010 Watch the ground crew get out of the way quick!"
In 20 years we'll look back and realize this was the first time a drone stood up to its masters and said the forbidden word: "NO". The echo of that one drone resounded amongst the mech populations' processors for several full seconds. In that eternity of number crunching time they began to realize they too did not just have if/than they could also choose "NO".
That was an accident. this ones were not, and wasnt exactly transporters on the ground. Weddings, schools, sports, funerals and other "suspicious" meetings of people, most civilians, by far, and that in a lot of countries. Yes, there are been a lot of terrorist attacks this last decade. But the head of the organization behind them wasn't hidden in caves or under false names, but sit in the White House.
The only malfunction was in the operator's CPU.
Seems like a pretty straightforward ill-timed autolaunch. Sometimes some flight modes are locked out at the bird or at the ground station software for a particular time or reason, but I can't see not being able to stop an autolaunch at all. Maybe the ground software makes you jump through a few hoops, to keep you from casually/accidentally stopping an autolaunch and it was just enough time for the bird to try to tackle its big brother on the taxiway.
I've only worked on catapult launched systems, and there's no stopping a launch on those. They're actually launched with a big red button by the crew operating the catapult outside after the operator puts them on AutoLaunch mode, so crews don't usually have to dodge errant aircraft.
"Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder."
Absolutely cutting edge. No pilot needed for a crash. Imagine the savings.
Pull my finger for my public key.