Drone causes havoc in Southern California

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

Soon after takeoff, though, something happened. Perhaps it was during the switchover from ground-based control to aerial ‘mothership’ radio control, or perhaps the aircraft felt that air coursing over its wings and thought, dammit, I want to live – it’s not clear what happened. What is clear is that the drone stopped responding to radio commands and started heading in a gentle curve and climb to the southeast.

To Los Angeles.

At this point, I can imagine very clearly a room of competent, wide-eyed men sitting around control panels, all momentarily frozen, one collective thought going through all their minds: oh, shit.

Clearly, the out-of-control drone buzzing its way towards one of America’s largest, most densely populated cities had to be stopped.

 

Photo of a similar drone

 

The rest of the Story

 

How A Rogue 1950s Drone Fiasco Ended With 208 Rockets Fired At Southern California

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Imagine the media, activists and lawyers reacting to an event like that today.

[Litl Red]

The "drone" in the photo is a Radio Control model. Notice the servos and connectors to the flaps and ailerons.

 

Also interesting that it would be carrying a long range aux fuel tank on a plane whose purpose was to be shot down almost immediately, as they were target drones. Also interestingly the FAA considered all model planes as drones from day one. They've since modified that slightly.

Edited September 17, 2016 by Litl Red

[Sedalia Dave]

The "drone" in the photo is a Radio Control model. Notice the servos and connectors to the flaps and ailerons.

 

Also interesting that it would be carrying a long range aux fuel tank on a plane whose purpose was to be shot down almost immediately, as they were target drones. Also interestingly the FAA considered all model planes as drones from day one. They've since modified that slightly.

Yes the photo I used was an RC plane Was the only decent picture I could get at the time. The post was intended to be a little tongue in cheek.

 

The US military has used a lot of surplus obsolete warbirds for target practice. When I was stationed at Pt Mugu they used QF-86s and QF-4s

 

Today the aircraft have remotely detonatable explosives installed to prevent this from occurring.

 

Imagine all the lawsuits if this occurred today. The congressional investigations would take years.

[The Charcoal KID, SASS# 31523]

Waste of good airplane!