Hobby Drones As Weapons Of Terror

DISCLAIMER: NO GREEN BEAN UNITED STATES FUGGIN MARINES WERE

HARMED OR KILT IN THIS EXPERIMENT

Let us recap and review: awhile back The Pastor and his clucky old women were all gobbling in fright about how the muzzle monkeys were gonna duct-tape explosives and grenades to hobby drones - and fly them into squaddies in the field and blow them to smithereens. Ever the aviation professional and the voice of restraint and reason - I tried to dissuade the boys of such hysteria in the comments - and got egged and royally flushed in the comments for my noble efforts! Details here. Now before we're too hard on Pete and the girls - you have to realize that they had seen reports in the media claiming the very same. I don't trust those a-holes further than I can throw 'em and I called bullshit on them too. But the boys were adamant: hobby drones were gonna be used to drop metal bars across power lines to short out city wide grids; hobby drones would be used to drop biologicals; hobby drones would render American forces obsolete and helpless.

Common sense should have prevailed even in the media. Think about it - if these things could do all that Uncle Sam would have finished off Al Quieda, ISIS, and pretty much all the terrorists in the world long ago with them. He sure as hell wouldn't be spending money on the big drones.You can bet that fat prick in North Korea would have had a drone flown up his arse too! HAR HAR HAR! I'm a veteran at this kind of shite - as a gun owner, I'm told that I'm a threat to national security and a home grown terrorist because I think liberals are morons and refuse to be disarmed by them. A lot of morons will go along with them on that too. In the media, gun owners are depicted either as psychos and time bombs. The next time the media tells you to fear something or someone - tell them to FOAD and back up and think.

Having been thoroughly humiliated by Pete and the boys - I went home and decided to game this out on a rudimentary out-house level. I got my big heavy lift hobby drone - I looked up the weight of your average fragmentation grenade on the internet - tried to see if I could at least simulate a drone attack with what I had. Details here.

Long story short - the Crapcopter couldn't even get airborne with a grenade sized load. This yap about blowing up Marines and Rangers with hobby drones is just so much bull. Hobby drones are TOYS. On the battlefield their main threat potential is as a reconnaissance tool. The bad guys can watch our squaddies with them and no bones about it. That's a huge tactical problem but the good news is we can watch them too - and we do, very very closely, with superior optics and night vision. Also, electronically jamming them probably wouldn't be that difficult.

That's not a drone...

THIS is a drone!

I suppose some caveats are in order, lest I get pounded by the Pastor and his gang again. It may be that there IS a hobby drone somewhere that can lift enough payloads that they could be dangerous... but I doubt it. The hobbyist doesn't need (or want) that kind of lift capability. However - heavy lift drones ARE out there that can.  This monster below is a heavy lift octorotor used for aerial photography work. If ya took the camera and mount off and replaced them with high explosives - I am guessing that beast probably will come in around $10,000.00 beans. That is not a hobby machine, and I doubt you would want to fly such an investment with my cheap 6 channel radio. Will the rag heads be using these against us one day? Maybe, but I doubt it. If terror is the goal, there are just better, more effective and less elaborate ways to kill people.

That fiendish looking thing looks like it should be 

chasing Spider-Man around.

If you're a dad and you want to have some real fun with hobby drones and the kids, the place to start is Flite Test.

If you're an old fart that wants to engage himself

there's at least 3 or 4 technologies going on here that are university level professions 

unto themselves. This sport can be as challenging as you

want to make it.

In any event I had a lot of fun teasing Pete and the boys and that's what it's all about. They sell the kits or you can design your own as I did - but their electrohubs make your first build much easier - that is what my Crapcopter is built from. 

Have a great Sunday and go be with your families. And to the Marines - I hope your Sunday is a slack one and that you're having some well earned down-time.

Cheers.