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2003-10-14 -Short Attention Span Theater-
Model airplane crosses the Atlantic
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Posted by Dar 2003-10-14 1:08:06 PM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Great, now bombs can come over with minaturized Jihadi's.
Posted by Anonymous 2003-10-14 1:14:40 PM||   2003-10-14 1:14:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Great, now bombs can come over with minaturized Jihadi's.

Like Noor Tantray?
Posted by Atrus 2003-10-14 2:49:14 PM||   2003-10-14 2:49:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 I thought small planes weren't a problem. What's Blix's opinion.
Posted by Super Hose  2003-10-14 3:12:52 PM||   2003-10-14 3:12:52 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 With small planes, basically high-tech RC's, you are going to still have a payload problem. I think that the Jihadis are looking for stock or modified stock equipment that they can boom, bio, or make a chem attack with. Why go to all that effort of transcontinental or intercontinental transport when one can smuggle in a package and use a Toyota for transport.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-10-14 5:45:07 PM||   2003-10-14 5:45:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Alaska Paul, the little plane has merit for a terrorist because terrorism is about making people petrified. Lots of folks saw North by Northwest.
Posted by Super Hose  2003-10-14 7:56:18 PM||   2003-10-14 7:56:18 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Keep in mind that the payload restriction on this particular model is an artifact of the rules, and not an inherent limitation of the vehicle itself. Given its wing-loading and power loading, the little device should be able to carry several pounds of additional payload, more than enough for certain terrorist devices.
It is also possible, obviously, to build a much larger model, say, 50 pounds or more gross weight, with the same basic technology.
It would not necessarily have to be capable of transoceanic flight, either, since the launch point could be a camelshaggistan-registered container ship in mid-ocean or a mosque in some sort of dhimmi enclave, say, Berkeley or Ottawa.

Reginald Denny, the 1930s Hollywood character actor, was also an RC enthusiast. He used that experience to start building radio-controlled target drones for the military before World War 2, and eventually founded the Radioplane Corporation, still in business as a division of Northrop-Grumman.
Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2003-10-14 8:28:30 PM||   2003-10-14 8:28:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 As a kid growing up in Louisiana, I used to be fascinated by one hobby shop in Alexandria. The guy that owned it had built a 1/32 scale Lockheed Constellation, powered by 4 electrically-started engines, with working flaps, rudder, retractible gear, the whole nine yards. At that scale, the aircraft was some 11 feet long, and had a wingspan of about 10 feet. IIRC, he said it had a five-hour cruise limit at 75mph, using radio-controlled variable-pitch props. Remember, this was in the late 1950's - this thing was built of some pretty heavy wood (Balsa won't handle that much stress), and about 16 coats of laquer, which is HEAVY. Predator can loiter around 16 to 18 hours.

The capability to do damage to someone, somewhere, at some time, isn't limited. There are dozens of ways it can be done. The only way to keep these fruitcakes from doing what they please is the threat of us coming down on them like a ton of bricks from high orbit. Only the threat of massive, unrestrained retaliation can restrain madmen. Clinton's half-hearted retaliation to Embassy and other bombings led directly to 9/11. UBL and Al Qaeda were shocked by Bush's response, because it was so different from Clinton's. They're still trying to recover.
Posted by Old Patriot  2003-10-15 1:14:23 AM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm]  2003-10-15 1:14:23 AM|| Front Page Top

11:36 Anonymous
17:07 Bulldog
10:06 Zhang Fei
04:39 Bulldog
04:16 Bulldog
01:14 Old Patriot
23:47 esp
23:45 Uncle Joe
23:31 Mom
23:14 JAB
22:35 Alaska Paul
22:30 Bomb-a-rama
22:26 Zhang Fei
22:17 tu3031
22:15 Shipman
22:13 tu3031
22:10 Shipman
22:10 Alaska Paul
22:03 Shipman
22:00 Shipman
21:54 CrazyFool
21:43 Super Hose
21:38 Alaska Paul
21:36 Super Hose









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