back to article Boeing: Black's the new black for black-helicopter projects

US aerospace colossus Boeing has revealed plans for its unmanned whisper-mode stealth helicopter, the A160T, to return to flight following a recent crash. The revolutionary, groundbreaking aircraft (cough) pranged itself during test flights last year, but Boeing believes that the software problems leading to the crash have been …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    ROTM

    When they come gunning for us, you just know it'll be one of these that dices you and everyone living thing on your street into tiny pieces in 3 seconds flat.

    Unless MS did the flight control OS, and given it looks like it's already suffered a "blue screen moment" that looks likely - I don't think we've got much to worry about at the moment.

    Skull and crossbones because we're all doomed.

  2. Slaine
    Black Helicopters

    aesthetics dialemma

    ...in the words of the great bard; "It's the crazy colour scheme that get's me. Every time I press one of these black buttons on a black background a black light lights up black to tell me I've done it"

  3. Richard Gadsden
    Joke

    Groundbreaking?

    They seem to have tried to break the ground, and found that the ground broke their aircraft.

  4. pauls

    Below the belt?

    I am amazed Moller has not forwarded a pilotless version of their successful Skycar for trials :-)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Black is more visible in a daytime sky than white

    For years the RAF have tried a number of different colour schemes for their training aircraft in an effort to prevent novice pilots colliding in mid air. White with yellow or orange highlights was the favourite for a number of years and throughout the nineties.

    Then they finally realised that white really wasn't all that visible in a daytime sky after all and didn't really help at night when the aircraft would have it's lights on anyway. Common sense and some more trials proved that black was the best colour, whatever the light conditions black was the easiest to distinguish in daytime. RAF trainers are now painted black with a single yellow stripe down the side, the stripe presumably is there to prevent ground crew walking into the side of the aircraft at night on an unlit tarmac.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    New TSA toy

    With all those lovely sensors and ultra quiet operation I am sure the TSA will put them all to great use by hovering outside some womans flat while she undresses.

    AC just incase the helicopters are out

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Units of measurement

    "It seems that the A160T is "roughly four times quieter" than comparable conventional choppers..."

    What units, exactly, measure quietness? Antidecibels?

    I guess it also uses "four times less energy", whatever the hell that means.

  8. Dave
    Boffin

    ratiometric measure

    Units are not really required when the report uses a ratio to express the relationship.

    deciBels are ratiomeric and work both up and down, the article could have geekily stated:

    "roughly 12dB quieter than conventional" or even:

    "-12dB quieter than ~"

    but given that the indicated reduction is only an estimate, a resort to deciBels seems ludicrous.

  9. Joey
    Alert

    Stealth car...

    Well, my Toyota is metallic gold and I've had quite a few people run into it parked in the street. Maybe this is the colour that makes solid objects invisible!!!!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Aluminimum/Tin foil does NOT shield one from the thought police

    Come on, this has been debunked repeatedly. In fact, when one university study seems to imply that instead of grounding/shielding ones brain from the ravages of electrical eavesdropping, it makes it easier by creating gain, by amplifying the signal as it bounces around the cranial cavity.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Re: Joey, Stealth car...

    Joey, I think you'll find that metallic gold actually distorts the gravity well of an object: Those cars didn't run into your car because it was invisible - they were sucked in by it's gravitational field.

    This is where the so-called 'dark matter' of the universe is hidden.

  12. Chris G

    Black

    RAF trainers with a yellow stripe? Cool, are they as good as Nike and where can I get a pair?

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