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from the they-always-want-to-be-watching-you dept.
Patrolling the skies these days is hard. There's so many options to choose from: traditional helicopters, new wide-angle surveillance planes, and even the more cutting-edge drones.
Each of these options has its drawbacks. Beyond the initial purchase price, well-tested helicopters typically cost at least hundreds of dollars per hour to send up. One-off surveillance planes are also not cheap, coming in at around $ 1,000 per hour. Drones, while very cheap, are problematic. Law enforcement needs a blanket Certificates of Authorization (COA) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and possibly a specific Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) each time a drone is used above 400 feet.
Enter a small Florida company now attempting to make snooping from the air both cheap and administratively easy. The Drone Aviation Holding Corporation (DAHC) recently announced that it had sold its second-ever "Blimp in a Box" ( http://www.droneaviationcorp.com/bib.html ) for local law enforcement purposes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by strattitarius on Tuesday August 05 2014, @09:22PM
Wiki - Army Balloon Corps [wikipedia.org]
Basically they tethered a hot air balloon and sent them up with a telegraph so the Union could see Confederate troop movements. It all started because the ballooner, Thaddeus Lowe, was captured by Confederate soldiers after he went off course. They thought he was a spy. He convinced them that he was not so they released him. He then took up spying for the Union just as he was accused of.
My kid likes the Berenstain Bears books and I think they do the same thing... give him ideas on how to act up. I now select which books he can read based on what trouble he has already been in.
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 05 2014, @11:44PM
After the Battle of Chancellorsville, whereby the blimp service completely missed 60,000 Confederate troops who made a surprise flanking movement to send 133k Union troops running, the blimp contract was not renewed.