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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

#4

Post by serf »

chucklenorris wrote: post #3
runnerup wrote: post #2

With 70+ minutes of flight time, maybe it wasn't battery powered but rather powered with liquid fuel.

It would have been visible with thermal cameras

we don't know it wasn't; it's only mentioned that night vision didn't illuminate it.

night vision systems are , most typically, very low-light sensitive cameras that occasionally have specific-wavelength illuminators -- they aren't generally thermal cameras.

I tend to think something with a run-time like that is liquid fuel based, too.

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

#6

Post by mgarfias »

chucklenorris wrote: post #3
runnerup wrote: post #2

With 70+ minutes of flight time, maybe it wasn't battery powered but rather powered with liquid fuel.

It would have been visible with thermal cameras

I assure You from racing r/c cars for years that an electric motor will also generate lots of heat.

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

#7

Post by LinuxBender »

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?

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

#8

Post by phire »

runnerup wrote: post #2

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.

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

#9

Post by Jtsummers »

serf wrote: post #4
chucklenorris wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would have been visible with thermal cameras

we don't know it wasn't; it's only mentioned that night vision didn't illuminate it. night vision systems are , most typically, very low-light sensitive cameras that occasionally have specific-wavelength illuminators -- they aren't generally thermal cameras. I tend to think something with a run-time like that is liquid fuel based, too.

Right. A lot of night vision goggles used by pilots like this will be more along the lines of an image intensifier [0], an NVD [1]. Not thermal imaging, though some models also let you see near-infrared they're not, strictly, infrared goggles.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_intensifier

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night-vision_device

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

#10

Post by awnird »

runnerup wrote: post #2

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.

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