Article

2003-06-03 Down Under

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Posted by Steve 2003-06-03 07:56 am|| || Front Page|| [11130 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Too bad in the end of the day, this guy will be better armed than the government of New Zealand.

Posted by BigFire 2003-06-03 09:14:31|| 2003-06-03 09:14:31|| Front Page Top

#2 Maybe we could reduce the DOD budget by buying direct from this guy?

Posted by ColoradoConservative 2003-06-03 09:49:29|| 2003-06-03 09:49:29|| Front Page Top

#3 There are easier ways to deliver a payload of explosives. A rental truck for example can take a lot more explosives than the cruise missile he's building. A large remote controlled plane (or little blimp) could probably be constructed far quicker if you needed range for your attack. Nobody has built one because its not worth the effort, for a terrorist, that is.

It would be nice if his X-Jet works and is cheaper than standard jet engines.

Posted by Yank 2003-06-03 12:57:17|| 2003-06-03 12:57:17|| Front Page Top

#4 Well, the original pulse engine was just a long firing chamber with one-way louvres on the air intake. Ran on gasoline, as I recall. Wonder what he did to make his X-jet?

Posted by mojo 2003-06-03 14:49:17|| 2003-06-03 14:49:17|| Front Page Top

#5 Is this Homer's long lost brother? You know, the rich one?

Posted by tu3031 2003-06-03 15:54:49|| 2003-06-03 15:54:49|| Front Page Top

#6 This is another one of those technological trends that is going to blow up on us like a wide body jet hitting a skyscraper. Processing power is so cheap, so widespread, and so easy to configure. With cheap sensors and cheap servos (and I do mean cheap) one could turn a BM-21 rocket into a precision guided munition. The right firmware running on the processor can overcome inconsistencies in the fuel density, winds, poor aerodynamic design, etc. Or how about a RPG round with a $15 heatseeker that can find the exhaust of an M-1 (the most vulnerable point) 90% of the time? The guy who first noticed this trend was a Polish science fiction writer named Stansilaw Lem. He called it unintelligence, IIRC (I can't find a citation on the web). He realized that the point wasn't to make a few expensive intelligent weapons, but to make lots of cheap weapons about as intelligent as a fly or ant, both of which are highly effective as performing simple tasks. We've crossed that threshold with JDAM. Expect more of this.

Posted by 11A5S 2003-06-03 16:19:24|| 2003-06-03 16:19:24|| Front Page Top

09:17 Raptor
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