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Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

thedrive.com

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Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#131

Post by phire »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #71
phire wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even 70+ minutes is dubious for a small liquid fuelled quad-copter. It's more likely there were multiple drones swapping in and out.

They specifically said it was not a quadcopter. It was probably a fixed wing craft.

They said it was "no standard quadcopter" due to it's capabilities.

In the report[1] they explicitly list it has as a rotocraft with an unknown (-1) number of rotors. They also list the UAS type as "quadcopter". At one point in the article they describe it as "hovering"

[1] https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/the-drive-cms-content-sta...

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#132

Post by phire »

SEJeff wrote: post #34
awnird wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most likely explanation is that the chase never actually happened, and the police are making it up. We should be long past the point of uncritically believing everything police claim.

Confirmed by a tower? The tower's tracked it with radar. That's how they called out the height. There would be logs.

Most radar can't tell the height of an object unless it has a transponder reporting it's altitude.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#133

Post by jcrawfordor »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #66

"There's no line of sight...it must be satellite controlled." Oh FFS. There's a lot of real estate on the ground where an operator could have been sitting and flying the thing with a high-powered FPV rig. FPV systems don't require satellites, and you can put a basic one together for less than $1000.

I don't think that's super clear - it seems to have covered somewhat over 20 miles but more importantly passed over a substantial (4k feet prominent) mountain ridge. That would make reliable control by line of sight radio very suspect and I don't think the operator would have risked it unless they had control by satellite or a high degree of confidence in its autonomous capability. Around the point it passes over the ridge the pilots briefly speculate that it may have encountered some kind of control problem due to its behavior, so perhaps it was being controlled from the ground with an autonomous safety capability... but that still indicates a high level of logistical sophistication since it departed the scene away from where the operator would have been (if we go on the autonomous safety theory it was presumably returning to autonomously land at a site north of Tucson?).

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#134

Post by jcrawfordor »

floatingatoll wrote: post #51

I'd like to call out the problem with these things. From the transcript: > ATTEMPTED TO CAPTURE CAMERA FOOTAGE BUT UNABLE I assume it's slightly harder than duct-taping a smartphone to a helicopter, but I'm still confused at how the military does not, by now, have high-fidelity panoramic video recordings figured out. They've had fifty years of UFOs nonsense and they still can't film the airspace around them in panora…

The capabilities of cameras are remarkably poor compared to human vision. Building a camera that covers a large area with the ability to resolve a small object at a mile distance is an expensive proposition, and I don't think the military has tried it. And, in general, aviation is averse to new technology and the military is averse to new technology. Combine the two and you get the present situation where most military aircraft have only limited imaging.

The police helicopters have very nice stabilized cameras but they're on the bottom (can't look upward more than a small amount) and hard to aim at things moving in the air. It seems like the drone was intentionally maneuvering to be difficult to track with a camera... the pilots both report it hovering around 1k feet directly above them, which is pretty much the place that it's least likely the helicopter would be able to image it.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#135

Post by 411111111111111 »

cryptonector wrote: post #112
jazzyjackson wrote: post #87

> I would have to imagine it was larger than a quadcopter, and I guarantee you it was nothing like a quadcopter from how long it was up - it has to be satellite-driven because there’s no line-of-sight, there’s no cell phone coverage that could have dealt with that, so it has to be satellite-driven, which is pretty freakin’ sophisticated.” So, setting aside this claim that there’s no line of sight, my bet is these guy…

Why even use drug mules if you can just drone everything over the border?

Their carry weight is absolute shit and ferrying over 10 doses isn't really worthwhile

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#136

Post by [deleted] »

ergot_vacation wrote: post #119
jazzyjackson wrote: post #87

> I would have to imagine it was larger than a quadcopter, and I guarantee you it was nothing like a quadcopter from how long it was up - it has to be satellite-driven because there’s no line-of-sight, there’s no cell phone coverage that could have dealt with that, so it has to be satellite-driven, which is pretty freakin’ sophisticated.” So, setting aside this claim that there’s no line of sight, my bet is these guy…

This is why I love HN. Between this and animat's post, I've got four amazing RC/quadcopter videos to watch that are a lot more worthwhile than Drive's 5000th "But what if UFOs were real tho?" article.

[deleted]

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#137

Post by veltas »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #126
nostrademons wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saw some guys racing drones like the first video in a local park. Every bit as fast and maneuverable, but they had them going through 6 ft gates on a course roughly the size of a football field. I assume they're not really human-controlled because I could barely track where the drone was, let alone give it precise controls for how to pass through the gate. Went home and told my wife "If we ever get into a war, humani…

Turns out humans are actually really great at controlling ridiculously fast aircraft, the drone races are controlled by a person looking through a camera pointed forward on the drone. You can think of it like speedrunning an N64 game, finding the timing that lets you act instead of react. But +1 humanity’s fucked, don’t Google Slaughterbots but maybe Google how to build an EMP, it’s easier than you think.

>maybe Google how to build an EMP

Sounds like a good way to get on a list.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#138

Post by prawn »

Implicated wrote: post #123
prawn wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think that most people with $10k+ of drone up there, aren't risking it physically or legally by playing with helicopters? Someone playing with tech that someone else is paying for though?

Don't underestimate the scale of wealth, $10k for a few moments of joy/adrenaline is far from unheard of for those with the means. If you have others, or can reproduce that piece of equipment with mere currency and you're sitting on a mountain of it.. why not?

I don't underestimate it, but if I wanted to play around with an expensive drone I could afford to lose, it would be during the day when I could see what I was doing or in a more interesting place. Dangerously flying a large/experimental drone near an air force base goes from "lose my $10k drone" to incurring the wrath of serious entities. Take down a chopper and if it's traced back to you, you're in some sort of trouble.

I just don't think private drone is the angle here. More likely to be an experimental agency thing, and someone flying a work gadget they haven't personally paid for, IMO.

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#139

Post by jonplackett »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #87

> I would have to imagine it was larger than a quadcopter, and I guarantee you it was nothing like a quadcopter from how long it was up - it has to be satellite-driven because there’s no line-of-sight, there’s no cell phone coverage that could have dealt with that, so it has to be satellite-driven, which is pretty freakin’ sophisticated.” So, setting aside this claim that there’s no line of sight, my bet is these guy…

Most impressed by the camera tracking. Is that automated or is someone that good at pointing a camera? (First link I mean)

Re: Police helicopter's 100mph chase with 'super sophisticated' drone near Tucson

#140

Post by systemvoltage »

veltas wrote: post #137
jazzyjackson wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out humans are actually really great at controlling ridiculously fast aircraft, the drone races are controlled by a person looking through a camera pointed forward on the drone. You can think of it like speedrunning an N64 game, finding the timing that lets you act instead of react. But +1 humanity’s fucked, don’t Google Slaughterbots but maybe Google how to build an EMP, it’s easier than you think.

>maybe Google how to build an EMP Sounds like a good way to get on a list.

Folks, this is why we need to preserve privacy!
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