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Science Hardware Technology

Throw-to-Launch Spy Planes 37

Posted by timothy from the sterling-machine dept.
mahonri5 writes "Miniture spy planes, developed by BYU and the Air Force, weighing only 3 oz, and having a 24 foot wingspan. Launched by throwing them into the air. And if that wasn't cool enough, you can fly them by laptop, PDA, or voice command. It does all the dirty work of flying on board, and you just tell it where to go. Best part, they've already been deployed. More at some Utah newspapers: here(1), here(2), or here(3)."
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Throw-to-Launch Spy Planes

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  • "Miniture spy planes, developed by BYU and the Air Force, weighing only 3 oz, and having a 24 foot wingspan."

    Damn, 24 feet, eh? Not that miniature... ;)
  • What? I've been making hand-launched planes that weigh less than 3 oz, with less than a single foot wing span that flew on their own as far as needed for years -- of course, my teachers hated me.

  • Hey (Score:2)

    by smoondog ( 85133 )
    24ft? 3oz? We should use that material for the space elevator!

    -Sean
  • Making a plane with a 24 foot wingspan that weighed only 3 oz, now that WOULD be impressive.
  • So it's an R/C plane with a camera on board. Nothing new there ...

    As for the autopilot, these [deseretnews.com] two pictures [byu.edu] show what looks like an awfully standard transmitter. Perhaps they've created some sort of spiffy autopilot, but they don't appear to be using it here. But even autopilots aren't new -- people have been doing that for years too, from systems that just automatically right the plane [fmadirect.com] as needed, to full fledged auto-pilots where you just tell the plane what to do on a computer. And here [plannet21.com] is someth

  • I live where forest fires are quite common, and I can guarantee you that nothing this fragile would *ever* survive in the turbulent atmosphere generated around any decent sized fire.

    For that matter, at only 3 ounces, a craft like this would be unlikely to survive or be controllable in any place where there is a prevailing wind over ten mph or where there are decent updrafts (cities).

    I'd also love to know how they managed to get a CCD camera with decent lens (decent resolution) packed into less than 3
    • I'm involved with imaging forest fires and I agree with you. Flying the UAV out of site of the controller is an FAA violation as well. The area around forest fires is closed to aircraft not under the control of the Tactical Air Controller so this adds another problem.

      To be useful it would have to have an imaging system far enough into the infrared to "see" through smoke and would probably have to be capable of providing images with more than 10 or 12 bits of data per pixel to avoid the condition where al
      • Thanks, excellent points, all.

        I just thought of something that these *might* be useful for, however; fire spotting in remote areas. If one could outfit them with solar cells to keep them aloft and a very simple temperature detector they could cover hundreds of square miles; one could automate them, having one local computer controlling several and reporting to a crew on detection.

        It's a thought....

        SB
        • There are lots of labs working on projects like the one you describe, NASA comes to mind, but the FAA has lots of flight and operation rules regarding where and how high and requires visual contact at all times. Not good for fire supression activities.
          • I'm suprised the FAA can't rescind those on a by-need basis for emergencies.
            • The tactical air controller could probably send one in since it would belong to the agency fighting the fire but it's too small to be seen by him or the water drop aircraft or the lead plane and you may have noticed that there have been some tankers lost in the last 18 months.b

              Typically visibility is bad sround the fire from all the smoke unless the fire is burning into the wind and the UAVs must be in sight of the controller.

              We fly our remote imaging aircraft at 16,500 and we are part of the fire supress
  • "weighing only 3 oz, and having a 24 foot wingspan"

    I was expecting to see a plane made of carbon nanotubes to achieve this...instead I see a plane that looks like the ones they sell at Toys'R'Us.

    I want my money back, damnit! ;-)

    -psy
  • Get the toy manufacturers involved... if they can make a talking teddy bear for under $10, they should be able to make an unmanned drone that costs an order of magnitude more to shoot down than it does to produce -- thus effectively either successfully spying on everything our opponents do, or driving them into bankruptcy.
  • It's 3oz. and 24 inches, not feet:
    With a 24-inch, collapsible wingspan the new plane can even be transported inside a slender tube.
    The slashdot editors should at least read the referenced articles...
  • ...they already been deployed? You call that good new? it made me shudder involuntarily, considering if i too, at last would not be better off starting to wear a tinfoil hat.
  • The the AeroVironment Pointer [aerovironment.com] is a throw-to-launch spyplane that's been used since 1988. It's a bit bigger than this new toy, and is carried in a backpack. Special Operations types have been using the Pointer for years. It's great for looking over the next hill to find out what the enemy is up to. Flight duration is about an hour, although they have to use silver-cadmium batteries to get that.
  • How very cool! Maybe these could be used to help break the information blockade [freenorthkorea.net] around North Korea!

    Come join the fun!

    ( http://www.freenorthkorea.net/archives/freenorthko rea/cat_breaking_the_information_blockade.html )

    Information NEEDS to be FREE!

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