DIY Drone plane

[J_Galt]

The future will not wait for us to get ready for it's arrival. It will simply roll right over top of us, and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

We can choose not to play and simply side-step the techno-stupidity. Choose the life you want, you can avoid the techno-BS.
The quality of our life is not defined by the techno-toys we own.
Not saying it's wrong... if that's what fills your boots, then go for it. Not everyone thinks it's the apex of human evolution.

[cgoodwin]

Perhaps I misunderstood "Borg up", what did you mean then?

Can you give me some examples of how close we are to throught control technology, I'm interested.

Cool little drone isn't it, $150 for a plane with an 8' wingspan! When I was a boy I built a $400 Spitfire another couple hundred for the remote another for the engine, etc. Flew it once, beautiful flight until it locked full throttle and did a big sweeping bank then a nose dive right into the cement.

[DieselBurps]

Originally Posted by cgoodwin

Fortunately we are a very long away from thought linking to computers so I doubt we will be seeing that in our lifetimes, personally more than enough of my "Dark side" slips out in posts and conversations for my liking.

"Dark Side of the Moon" was a Pink Floyd reference - c'mon guys, this is a generational reference that you should know! The journey to madness, toys in the attic, bats in the belfry, the few bricks shy of a load... The man is bat-sh*t crazy and that's a trip none of us should ever want!

The "Dark side" of a personality is something different - that much is usually controlled.

Originally Posted by cgoodwin

I would like to have a drone that I could launch and get a birds eye view of things though. What a blast, I found a guy who has a goggle set up connected to the camera in the plane, he turns his head left and the camera turns, he is now working on dual cameras so he can take others virtual flying.

I'm thinking an electrically powered sail-plane might be a better drone. It's quiet, there is less vibration for a clearer picture. The motor would extend the range, yet you could shut it down for audio taping as well as "stealth".

Originally Posted by cgoodwin

If I can go to the hobby store and buy a drone with 20 minutes fly time and full video feedback, I fail to see why I have to take my shoes off at the airport, surely the terrorist implications are astounding. Drug runners could surveil an area or route, for that matter jumping ounces of cocaine across borders just got a lot easier with a nearly silent drone that could be flown 10' above the ground....

And you could load up the drone with gunpowder and thumbtacks for deployment in a crowd situation... Yeah - this could be a problem. A powerful radio tranmitter and the option of a live video feed to use for navigation could be a real threat. It's what our government uses even!!!

[cgoodwin]

LOL, I understood what you meant but we all have a bit of nutter in us and that is nothing I want being shared. You want to experience mental illness, go to any nightclub and find the sweaty guy with square toed Italian shoes and his satin shirt carefully folded to the elbow and too much jewelry, he has something for a few bucks that will nearly get you there. Mind linking with Dana on the other hand could leave a mark.

These little drones are nifty and fun but can't carry much of a payload, this exact same equipment however could be used to control a vehicle or larger aircraft carrying whatever you like. If you watch the FPV videos the display though the goggles pans and tilts the camera in the plane in sync with the motion of the pilots head and displays altitude full gyro tilt and yaw, compass heading distance from control, signal strength, battery level, even temperature. This is absolutely amazing technology for pennies. You could easily link this same gear to a 38' cigarette boat filled with bubble bath and run it headlong into a major bridge at rush hour.

Good thing these are not sold over the internet or suicide bombers would last more than one attempt at collateral damage.