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Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

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Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#21

Post by baron816 »

Teever wrote: post #13

There are amateurs chasing the speed record using similar designs too: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=world%27s%20fas... Unit cost for a lot of these seems to be under ~$5K USD, not counting the value of engineering time. How do you counter a swarm of these things coming from all directions? This kind of weapon has interesting consequences for public speaking events by leaders. Or large industrial proje…

I’ve been worried about the same thing, but I’m more worried about it being used as a mechanism for deploying chemical weapons.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#22

Post by [deleted] »

Teever wrote: post #13

There are amateurs chasing the speed record using similar designs too: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=world%27s%20fas... Unit cost for a lot of these seems to be under ~$5K USD, not counting the value of engineering time. How do you counter a swarm of these things coming from all directions? This kind of weapon has interesting consequences for public speaking events by leaders. Or large industrial proje…

[deleted]

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#23

Post by rich_sasha »

LorenDB wrote: post #15
mattas wrote: post #8

Not even close to the manhole cover speed record.

For those unaware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob Most people agree that the manhole cover would have been vaporized during its atmospheric ascent portion of flight, but I still like to believe that somewhere out there in the void, a small blob of molten steel that survived the atmosphere is drifting in solar orbit.

Perhaps it's going even faster, and one day will zoom through someone else's stellar system. And they'll rack their brains over what this weird misshaped metallic radioactive object means, where it's coming and where it's going to.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#24

Post by sandworm101 »

Teever wrote: post #13

There are amateurs chasing the speed record using similar designs too: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=world%27s%20fas... Unit cost for a lot of these seems to be under ~$5K USD, not counting the value of engineering time. How do you counter a swarm of these things coming from all directions? This kind of weapon has interesting consequences for public speaking events by leaders. Or large industrial proje…

>> send in the mail to another country in a special box that can open up when it senses that it has arrived at a destination

They are called letter bombs. Ted Kaczynski did much damage with them. Needless to say, direct mail from Kyiv to moscow is not straightforward these days. And sending secret explosives through third country mail services is frowned upon by postal workers. Fedex even charges a premium when shipping killbots overnight.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#25

Post by tokai »

close04 wrote: post #4

Speed is only part of the story, but probably the part that can sell the capability of drones today. How good are they at intercepting another maneuverable aircraft either autonomously or FPV? At what speed is the drone starting to be limited by the human pilot relying on a camera feed?

No speed is the most important factor. You have a very limited window to get the munition on target. An in Ukrainians case Geran drones drones don't maneuver much, if at all.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#27

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Teever wrote: post #13

There are amateurs chasing the speed record using similar designs too: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=world%27s%20fas... Unit cost for a lot of these seems to be under ~$5K USD, not counting the value of engineering time. How do you counter a swarm of these things coming from all directions? This kind of weapon has interesting consequences for public speaking events by leaders. Or large industrial proje…

> How do you counter a swarm of these things coming from all directions?

Throw drones back at them. Shoot them with bullets. Anti-drone tech has been advancing as well, albeit mostly outside the U.S.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#28

Post by close04 »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #14
close04 wrote: post #4

Speed is only part of the story, but probably the part that can sell the capability of drones today. How good are they at intercepting another maneuverable aircraft either autonomously or FPV? At what speed is the drone starting to be limited by the human pilot relying on a camera feed?

Speed is really important because at these speeds they can probably intercept drones flying with low cost jet engines. So it adds a huge capability.

But it can’t be the thing that mattered first and foremost because then a 20c bullet would win against any drone. But a bullet is not great at intercepting small moving targets. Which is why I asked how good are they at intercepting at those speeds especially FPV mode.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#29

Post by laughing_man »

daveguy wrote: post #7
yread wrote: post #2

still 100 mph less than piston-powered airplane speed record. Or 150 less than Tu95. Drones should be able to go that fast too

Yeah, big 'ol asterisks in this "world air speed record". This is for electric-powered flight, and is equivalent to 57% of Mach-1.

It's a pretty big deal in the Ukraine war. Russia has been using cheap drones to attack Ukraine, which initially only had very expensive SAM systems to intercept. Ukraine then introduced cheap electric drone interceptors which have been working well.

Russia's response was to increase the speed of its drones. As long as Ukraine can match that speed increase with the interceptors, it will still be able to intercept drones cheaply.

Re: Electric anti-aircraft interceptor drone breaks world air speed record at 434mph

#30

Post by close04 »

tokai wrote: post #25
close04 wrote: post #4

Speed is only part of the story, but probably the part that can sell the capability of drones today. How good are they at intercepting another maneuverable aircraft either autonomously or FPV? At what speed is the drone starting to be limited by the human pilot relying on a camera feed?

No speed is the most important factor. You have a very limited window to get the munition on target. An in Ukrainians case Geran drones drones don't maneuver much, if at all.

Bullets (Or rockets. Or shells with proximity fuses) go much faster so obviously speed isn't the most important factor.

These are anti-aircraft interceptors, intercepting sound like a critical part of the job.

> drones don't maneuver much, if at all.

Yeah, drones didn't fly at 700km/h much if at all either. So can an interceptor drone traveling at 700km/h reliably maneuver to intercept an enemy drone? How well can it do it when a human is piloting?

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