

Drone flown 20ft from landing Heathrow jet - jakobsbiz
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-30446136

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adamio
Isn't drone a buzzword and this type of craft is just a radio controlled
plane. This tech is ancient. I thought drone implies it's self guiding.

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mod
It is a buzzword, one that's very great at fear-mongering, and is getting RC
planes grouped with UAVs that are killing people overseas.

It's unfortunate. Assholes like the guy flying this drone aren't helping,
either, for hobbyists that want to fly legally and responsibly, which as you
note, has been going on for a very long time.

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balls187
The threat of a drone that can fire a missile at an airline seems to have the
same net result as the threat of an RC plane that is flown illegally in
restricted airspace dangerously close to an airline.

I don't see it as fear mongering, given that both outcomes are bad, and I
believe and the public should be aware that because RC tech is becoming
cheaper and more popular, more idiots will get their hands on it.

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ynniv
That you think a few pounds of low speed balsa wood and a high explosive
guided missile are equally dangerous to an aircraft exemplifies the problem.

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balls187
How about I throw a few pounds of low-speed balsa wood into your car
windshield at 75 mph/120kmph and see what happens?

Now imagine what happens if you can get a car up to airline speeds.

Your ignorance of the dangers of high speed collisions exemplifies exactly
_why this is alarming._

Also, I recommend familiarizing yourself with Airline and Foreign Object
Damage before continuing further.

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ynniv
It's fine that you are worried about high speed collisions. Bird strikes are a
serious problem, especially for small craft, and there's no reason to allow
the public to increase the frequency of them.

However, you compared them directly to guided, high explosive ordinance that
are intentionally, reliably fatal for any sized aircraft. This is not a valid
comparison, and is the core problem with the term "drone".

I have had a few pounds of wood hit my windshield at high speed, and while it
really scared me it had no long term impact on me or my car. I would not fair
so well against a Hellfire missile.

Edit: Impact of 2lb at 75mph ~= 1 Kj. Detonation of a Hellfire missile (9kg of
TNT equiv) is 37.66 Mj. That's a four orders of magnitude difference, not
taking into account the suitability for inflicting damage.

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Retr0spectrum
I expected better from the BBC. Although they referred to it as a model
helicopter in the article itself, the use of the D-word in the title makes it
sound much more serious then it actually was.

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balls187
> the use of the D-word in the title makes it sound much more serious then it
> actually was.

I disagree. There are a number of reasons why this should alarm folks. Radio
controlled aircraft flying near an airline is extremely dangerous, whether it
contains weapon systems or not.

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snowwrestler
Are the control links of hobby RC aircraft encrypted? I would assume not.

I wonder then if it would be possible for airports or planes (or both) to emit
control signals what would guide RC aircraft away. From the operator's
perspective, the aircraft would simply refuse to follow commands to go in a
certain direction.

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mod
I'm not sure they could know ahead of time what signals would operate which
motor.

Plus it'll vary per setup. 40% thrust might bring some rc models down quickly
& dangerously, and might actually increase height on others.

Without being able to view the models, I don't think this is a very viable
solution.

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snowwrestler
I was thinking that a smart system could vary the input signals and measure
whether the aircraft gets closer or farther--teaching itself pretty quickly
which signal does what.

But now that I think about it, even if the signal is not encrypted, it's
certainly operating in a narrow slice of bandwidth, and might be digitally
encoded. A naive search would probably take way too long just to find the
input signal at all. It would only work if manufacturers were forced to share
information that would allow an "authorized" system to quickly find and alter
the control inputs. Seems messy and risky.

And of course this does nothing for self-controlled drones.

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ryan-c
There are a very limited number of frequencies used for RC aircraft and I've
never heard of the signal being encrypted (authenticated would be more
important than encrypted anyway). I also think the control protocols are
fairly standardized. The main exception would probably be the ones that are
controlled over WiFi (which, as far as I've seen, are not normally encrypted
either).

