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UK Now Has Systems To Combat Drones (bbc.com)
Detection systems are now able to be deployed throughout the UK to combat the threat of drones, ministers say. It follows three days of disruption at Gatwick airport last week, when drones were sighted near the runway. From a report: Security minister Ben Wallace said those who use drones "either recklessly or for criminal purposes" could expect "the most severe sentence". It comes after the couple arrested and released without charge over the chaos at Gatwick said they felt "violated". About 1,000 flights were affected during 36 hours of chaos at Gatwick airport last week. The airport has spent 5 million Pound ($6.36 million) since Wednesday on new equipment and technology to prevent copycat attacks.
So you think punishing somebody innocent is the solution to this problem? Because, you know, they only release people without charge if they have absolutely nothing on them...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Shotguns lack the range or accuracy.
To judge from the high death toll from vigilantes killing bystanders, so do many American gun owners.
No American I'd trust with a gun, and there are a few, would willingly fire off rounds at a tiny moving drone next to an aircraft filled with passengers and fuel.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
1. Mysterious drone appears (or not!) in the skies over Gatwick Airport...
2. ...Some days later, 5m is spent with an unnamed drone countermeasures company.
3. PROFIT!! (no ??? needed!)
Who is innocent? They were caught breaking the law.
No they weren't. They were arrested based on a "tip-off". There is no other evidence against them.
We really need to change the legal system in both the UK and US. The police should not be releasing names of people that are merely suspects, even when the police are under political pressure to show that they are "doing something".
This couple had their lives turned upside down. They had their names and faces plastered on news reports where they were called "morons", and blamed for "ruining Christmas". Yet the police had no evidence against them, and no justification for naming them to the press.
They should get a lawyer and sue for the mental distress caused by the police's reckless incompetence. That would be a no-brainer in America, but even in the UK, they might get a nice payout.
But this is the problem -- it's not the same thing:
1. The test is on a general aviation aircraft wing, a Mooney M20, not a commercial jet aircraft, which is much more rugged
2. The speed used was 238 mph, while the Mooney M20c has a do-not-exceed speed of 164 kt (190 mph), and takeoff and climbing is typically at something more like 88-105 KIAS. 238 mph would have to assume that the drone was headed into the plane at 48 mph when the plane was doing its top speed -- and it's unlikely the plane could do that speed at an altitude the drone could reach.
A more realistic test would be the wing of a 737 at its takeoff speed of 130 kt. Has that test ever been done?
The police did not release their names. Further the news outlets that published their names are now going to find themselves paying large amount of compensation to the couple because disclosing the names of people being questioned by the police *IS* illegal in England unless the police name them which they did not.