SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
FAA threatens $25,000 fine for weaponizing drones
It's perfectly natural for a red-blooded American to, once they have procured their first real drone, experiment with attaching a flame thrower to it. But it turns out that this harmless hobby is frowned upon by the biggest buzzkills in the world... the feds.
Yes, the FAA has gone and published a notice that drones and weapons are "A Dangerous Mix." Well, that's arguable. But they're the authority here, so we have to hear them out.
"Perhaps you've seen online photos and videos of drones with attached guns, bombs, fireworks, flamethrowers, and other dangerous items. Do not consider attaching any items such as these to a drone because operating a drone with such an item may result in significant harm to a person and to your bank account."
Also at The Verge and PetaPixel.
Previously: Department of Homeland Security Terror Bulletin Warns of "Weaponized Drones"
Related: FAA Restricts Drone Operations Over 10 U.S. Landmarks
FAA Approves Blood Toting Drones at North Carolina Hospital
Commercial Drones Are Way More Popular Than the FAA Expected
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Warns Against Using Chinese Drones
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 25 2019, @05:39PM
So, I worked for a now long and thoroughly defunct drone company which was contracted by the US military to attach a small handgrenade like weapon to their drone for a kamikaze style attack - test - on a pickup truck with two crash test dummies inside. Cut to the chase: total success, truck engine disabled and lethal damage to the test dummies.
The grenade was an electronically triggered device via an RS232 interface which required a complicated multi-stage arming/firing code. The military gave us a practice dummy device to test the interfaces with, and generally took the idea of "accidental boom" pretty seriously, at no time did I feel that anyone on the project might be taken out by friendly fire.
Contrast this with the M-800s and mortar launched sky bombs sold from your local grocery store parking lot on July 3rd (depending on your state laws, of course...) Accidental boom happens quite a bit with those things... permanently damaged my father's eyesight in one eye when he was 11, playing with his 14 year old cousin and M80s.
🌻🌻 [google.com]