181–188 of 188 posts
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I have to concur. I built many drones with 400$+ flight controllers that look like trash next to my mini 2.
Which drone flight controllers cost $400+??
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Whoa that's a bit of a US Centric broad brush there. "Most Western Countries" - there's more to the West than the US, UK and less than half a dozenish who have or are doing that. I'm Irish and the vast majority of the EU and other Western Countries (however that is defined) aren't in the business of disappearing people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappeared_(Northern_Ireland)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoa that's a bit of a US Centric broad brush there. "Most Western Countries" - there's more to the West than the US, UK and less than half a dozenish who have or are doing that. I'm Irish and the vast majority of the EU and other Western Countries (however that is defined) aren't in the business of disappearing people.
> I'm Irish and the vast majority of the EU and other Western Countries (however that is defined) aren't in the business of disappearing people. True, but that's comparable only if these countries had the same responsibilities (it's like comparing people, say a soldier vs a librarian). Ireland for instance has no Air Force, and has to call on the RAF to provide air defence (as it happened when Russian Tu-95s intruded…
Similarly countries like Sweden and Japan are well armed and not in the business of disappearing people.
Two thought triggered by this article. 1: What alternative designs for quadcopter would be viable for small drones? Some lighter-than-air quality? I assume the complexity involved in making a helicopter collective would be too heavy. Is it really quadcopters all the way down? 2: Why not smaller? Would an even smaller drone be unfeasible due to battery weight and square/cube law issues? What's stopping us from gram-sc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm Irish and the vast majority of the EU and other Western Countries (however that is defined) aren't in the business of disappearing people. True, but that's comparable only if these countries had the same responsibilities (it's like comparing people, say a soldier vs a librarian). Ireland for instance has no Air Force, and has to call on the RAF to provide air defence (as it happened when Russian Tu-95s intruded…
None of what you say aligns with disappearing people. NATO can easily do its role without that. In fact you can argue that NATO states like US/UK/Turkey which have disappeared people are very unlikely to do it against peer adversaries like Russia, China etc because of the risk of blow back. It's far more common to it to groups deemed as terrorist, Latin American countries etc. Similarly countries like Sweden and Japa…
By painting with such broad strokes, we are comparing entirely different types of actions.
Two thought triggered by this article. 1: What alternative designs for quadcopter would be viable for small drones? Some lighter-than-air quality? I assume the complexity involved in making a helicopter collective would be too heavy. Is it really quadcopters all the way down? 2: Why not smaller? Would an even smaller drone be unfeasible due to battery weight and square/cube law issues? What's stopping us from gram-sc…
Attach the mini-drone to a helium filled ... red balloon (just to rhyme with the well-known song), or some better tactical color. This would somewhat alleviate the energy expenditure to maintain lift and prolong the flight time. The motors may selectively cut off based on present state of inertia. This may be all possible due to relatively small weight of such drones. Sure this would preclude operation in storm winds…
Hmm...from a tech porn perspective it’s a cool little gadget. But given the shadow surveillance and police state that was erected post 9/11 and how often “national security” outfits have been caught playing fast and loose with the laws of the land, there is a good chance that bugs like this one will be eventually be used to illegally spy on domestic dissidents and whistleblowers. Governments in most western countries…
These things and considerably smaller were fielded 10 years ago by the US; you could bid on SBIR contracts to remedy some of their defects.