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Old 3rd Nov 2013, 02:01
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Ebbie 2003
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Barbados
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Coming soon to a school near you

Depends on the size - Predator type stuff will always be rare, the small ones are the greatest problem

This is worth a look

Australian startups plan on using UAVs to deliver textbooks

I'm not too fussed about them - the obvious thing is to have these things zipping along below 100ft AGL - they are GPS and computer controlled so presumably they can be inhibited from going near airfields etc - so no take away deliveries for hungey pilots (think I have seen one that delivers pizza in a report and also one that took beer to concert/festival goers, it homed in on the customer's iPhone and dropped the beer can from a few feet up).

I'm sure that when they become common that there will be great sport to be had trying to knock them down potato cannons and the good old Y shaped catapult of yesteryear.

As they become cheaper and more capable of carrying load - lets say a 10lb cargo and cost $2,000 for the whole thing, it will be interesting to see the next generation of urban terrorists with their own fleet of quasi-cruise missiles for less that the price of a decent second hand car. Come to think of it four ounces of high grade plastic explosive and ball bearings detonated (via the hand 'drop' command) 6ft above a crowd - oh, yes, they get a cluster bomblette too; could probably do that now with a Parrott or certainly with one of the hobbyist quads - hope someone at MI something is watching who is buying up the kit.

The risk with these things is less likely to be their accidental misuse but their deliberate misuse - if they become integrated into our everyday lives would they then be banned from flying if there was an even like the 2012 Olympics - I doubt it - whenever anything is invented someone will find a way to weaponize it, scary to think it can be done ion a budget.

Anyone want to run a sweepstakes on the date that the first sub-$2,000 drone is used to "deliver" a bomb in an urban location? I'll take some day May 2015 at $10 a day - proceeds eventually to the fund for the victims!
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