Death from above: Video of drones fitted with machine guns that could transform battlefield

Mail Online ^ | 4-23-2012 | Ted Thornhill

[cowboybeebop]

In the clip ‘FPSRussia’, whose Call of Duty videos and real-life weapon demonstrations have earned him a cult following, shows off a quadrotor – a mini helicopter with four rotors - outfitted with a machine gun.

The machine is controlled by a tablet computer and FPSRussia explains that a camera on front of the quadrotor gives him a ‘birds’ eye view’ of the target.

[Lazamataz]

It is tragic. It is tragic WE DO NOT HAVE THEM IN THE CIVILIAN WORLD. Perhaps we need them.

[Lazamataz]

Lets make one.

[sjmjax]

Hard to stop laughing!

I really, really hate to do this as what he does is often priceless. Yeah, it's fake and so is he.

He does many videos and most are quite real regarding the firearms. Occasionally they've been "augmented" with video effects. And, he's not really "Russian". It's a gimmick.

But this one takes it to a new level and it's hysterical that the DailyMail picked it up and reposted it as real.

This is as good as the time a Democrat politician thought Birdman's "HoMeBoy Night Sights" were real and tried to make a political/racial issue out of them.

[Lazamataz]

EVERYTHING ON THE INTERNET IS REAL.

When will you ever learn?

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Practically speaking a UAV carrying a gun would need to use electrically fired or rocket cartridges, and be as recoil-less as possible. Perhaps using something like a rocket pod to fire .50 caliber rockets.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I’m old school, I’m working on an ornithopter carrying a .416 Rigby double.

[potlatch]

Watch out for flying objects!

 

[Lazamataz]

I’m all about mounting ballistas to pterodactyls.

[BuffaloJack]

Of course the special exploding targets give if a nice touch too.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I think a ptrebuchet is more alliterative.

[MrB]

Where’s the flying unicorn?

[potlatch]

Lol, actually have an image intended for that but haven’t got to it yet!!

[smoothsailing]

HA! That’s hilarious! :)

[Arthalion]

Tragic, ‘cuz it’s so easy to make a real one.

Hardly. I know someone who tried. He put a rifle sans stock onto an Xheli quadcopter and fired one round through it. If he'd thought about the physics a bit more, he might have predicted that it would spin in the air like a top and crash to the ground out of control. Which is exactly what it did. Quadcopters work because they're light and have little mass. When you discharge a weapon from an unanchored lightweight flying platform, the whole "equal and opposite reaction" thing kicks in, and your copter goes flying in the opposite direction. If your firarm isn't discharging in perfect alignment with your aircraft center of mass and direction of thrust, the off center discharge will cause the aircraft to spin on its centerline.

He didn't try it again.

[Wonder Warthog]

"If your firarm isn't discharging in perfect alignment with your aircraft center of mass and direction of thrust, the off center discharge will cause the aircraft to spin on its centerline."

I suspect that software will quickly be developed that can/will compensate for the recoil. Seems like that should be fairly simple, given all the complexities that exist.

[tet68]

I would imagine there would be some twist from the
rifling too. Maybe a blow back action would cut some
of it and a smaller caliber like .22 would cut down
on the weight but still.
Perhaps a recoilless rocket or something like that.

[Pollster1]

A few months ago I read about the installation of .50-cal Barrett rifles on UAVs for long-distance precision shots. I don’t know if it ever got implemented.

That's the application that I like. Covert precision fire would make a huge difference.

[Crawdad]

Get’em while they’re hot.

http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/avav

[marktwain]

perhaps the 1970's era Gyrojet? ;-)