A Non-News Item

 

1. The juxtaposition of this with the ‘world’s largest model rocket’ thread makes it even more interesting.

   I have to say, at this point I very much doubt the Air France crash had any link to terrorists, or by now some slimy group would have been jumping up and down, waving their hands in the air and yelling, ‘lookit me, lookit me!  I did that!’

   Posted by Siddhartha Vicious       06/11/2009  at  07:08 AM  



2. Shouldn’t be too hard for the authorities to pull a list of modelers buying large composite model rocket engines for a 50mile radius around the airport. 

   Cant be more than a handful of ‘em.

   Would be quick to interview them and either rule them out or find the culprit....

   I seriously doubt that terrorists are involved (yet) but it should be investigated quickly and slap the wrists of any Bubbas stupid enough to launch any large models near an air corridor.

   Posted by TimO       06/11/2009  at  09:57 AM  



3. TimO, I’m sure the gov has the list of all the High Power rocketeers in the country. You need a license to do that kind of thing. And many of them drive across the country to the southwest to fly their birds. They get flight permits from the FAA months in advance.

   But it isn’t hard to make your own, illegally. It’s the same technology that Hamas uses. Any Joe with a small machine shop could turn them out by the dozen. It’s not even hard to rig up an R/C guidance system, but that takes quite a bit of skill to use properly. Shouldn’t be too hard to wire up an automatic “keep it going straight up” system with a digital level and an EPROM chip.

   Posted by Drew458       06/11/2009  at  10:48 AM  



4. Sid V - That’s the point. One post shows the level of freedom that responsible citizens can practice. The other shows the danger of jerks (or worse) doing something similar but with bad intent.

   High Powered model rockets have gone over 100,000 feet up. That’s almost to space. Wouldn’t it be beyond awesome if Americans, plain old regular Joes, put stuff in LEO, just for fun?

   Posted by Drew458       06/11/2009  at  11:04 AM  



5. Drew, that would be grand, in fact.  Take me back to childhood dreams, anyway.  The days of reading Rocketship Gallileo.

   Of course, if some dick uses the same techniques to shoot down an airliner, there will certainly be a hue & cry to shut down the ones who do it as a hobby.

   Can’t you just see some stupid ‘news’paper with ‘Saturday Night Special Missiles’ in the headline?

   Posted by Siddhartha Vicious       06/12/2009  at  05:51 AM  

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