71–80 of 275 posts
With 70+ minutes of flight time, maybe it wasn't battery powered but rather powered with liquid fuel.
Even 70+ minutes is dubious for a small liquid fuelled quad-copter. It's more likely there were multiple drones swapping in and out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do https://english.elpais.com/spain/2021-07-15/spanish-police-s... https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mexicos-cartels-are-usin... P.S. you can buy the drone in the first article for a few 1000’s $ on Alibaba…
I don't think there is anything that has a wingspan of 4.5 meters and a capacity to carry 150 kilos of cargo. You have any links?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Clearly people have some rights to the space over their property. Case law isn't well established but, outside of airport landing rights, the consensus seems to be something like 400 feet which is in general uncontrolled airspace. https://aerocorner.com/blog/drone-over-private-property/ I probably won't shoot down a delivery drone though I may file a complaint. But if a drone starts poking around at low altitude over…
Property rights in the US are particularly funny. You don’t own as much as you think you do. The land deed you have is a 2D plot of land. There are also mineral rights, air rights, and raparian rights. That last one is the rights to collect water in your land. Most likely there is a water management authority who owns the rain water in your property. Unless your deed specifically states you own mineral rights a minin…
I was told that I own my land and everything up to “the sky”. Granted, for practical purposes this means that if a neighbors tree over hangs my plat I have the right to trim it up across my property line.
Any legal beagles able to chime in?
Somewhat off topic, what I find curious is that gangs have not yet started really making use of drones. I've heard of them being used to drop drugs and phones into prisons, but not much else. Some of the higher end hobby drones can fly just as high as general aviation aircraft and really fast and carry a lot of weight. Or perhaps I have missed the stories?
All the "drone delivery" startups and big co projects have outright failed or been nothing more than PR. There might be something about this that is a lot more difficult than can be seen prima facie, starting probably with the flight time of battery powered drones..
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do https://english.elpais.com/spain/2021-07-15/spanish-police-s... https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mexicos-cartels-are-usin... P.S. you can buy the drone in the first article for a few 1000’s $ on Alibaba…
I don't think there is anything that has a wingspan of 4.5 meters and a capacity to carry 150 kilos of cargo. You have any links?
A tweet from Spanish police with a video of the compartment[1].
A Vice article about the same drone[2]. At the end it says, "Police found seven drones, each with load capacities of between four and 25kg," which puts the biggest at 1/6th the capacity of this one. Allegedly.
For perspective, the Aerolite-103, a single-seat ultralight aircraft with a maximum fuel+pilot+cargo takeoff weight of 147kg and a wingspan of 8.18m[3].
Of course, it's not like police would over hype[4] a drug bust[5].
[0] https://www.avinc.com/uas/jump-20
[1] https://twitter.com/policia/status/1414875097752653826?s=20
[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyvwmv/look-at-this-huge-dru...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero-Works_Aerolite_103
[4] https://www.buzzfeed.com/aliciabarron/people-are-totally-und...
[5] https://www.metro.us/nypd-makes-the-most-pathetic-drug-bust-...
With 70+ minutes of flight time, maybe it wasn't battery powered but rather powered with liquid fuel.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
GPS doesn’t work underwater. Almost all the drone tech navigates by GPS; converting over to an inertial nav system and making that reliable for autonomous underwater operation is a good bit more than “relatively straightforward” I think.
Narcosubs are typically just barely sub-surface, they don't operate deep like navy subs. The portion above water is designed to be low enough to be hidden by waves but is still above the surface so using GPS wouldn't be an issue.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone that starts taking potshots at drones over their property is risking federal charges for shooting at an aircraft.
I thought (more relevantly) there were also laws about shooting without a backdrop to catch stray bullets, since this sounds like a densely populated area, also perhaps shooting towards people: bullets that go up, come down again somewhere else at nearly the same speed.
Military airbase doesn’t have its own defense mechanism? Relying on police helicopter sounds … too unsophisticated…
Somewhat off topic, what I find curious is that gangs have not yet started really making use of drones. I've heard of them being used to drop drugs and phones into prisons, but not much else. Some of the higher end hobby drones can fly just as high as general aviation aircraft and really fast and carry a lot of weight. Or perhaps I have missed the stories?
I think it might have been on the show, Drugs Inc. that I heard this -a gang member explaining how they'd use a drone with thermal over residential college areas, where students would often grow pot; then they'd knock on the door and either take it all, or conscripted them into growing for the gang.