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back to article Norwegians demo 10cm video & GPS pocket-chopper

"The world's smallest full authority helicopter", with rotors just 10cm across, has been successfully flight tested in Norway. Scandinavian microcopter developers hailed the debut of the prototype PD-100 Black Hornet as "a major success". Sceptical readers in possession of the small battery-powered remote-controlled …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Countermeasures

    From the article: "... the Hornet is meant for military use - allowing soldiers a quick and lightweight way to look behind things, inside buildings, through windows and so forth."

    So, I expect that terrorists will be trading their AK47's in for 12-bore shotguns.

    PULL!

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Sounds good :-)

    The one we've got isn't very easy to attack people with you hope there's a vague possability that it's pointing in the right direction and then usually end up flying it into a wall.

    However... I want a Stealth copter, with silent blades....

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  3. Sam

    Hands up

    ...who wants one?

    I do.

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  4. Alex
    Paris Hilton

    Wind? I'll tell you about wind.. *PARP!*

    Well, they can't use them out in nominal weather because they are too light. Might be good when the air is still and no rain, but has it been actually tested in normal weather?

    Used to fly model helicopters when I was a kid, and you just knew there would be some poor sod who would try out his/her labour of love, for the last 6 months, during a windy session.. only to see it buffet and nose dive into the ground.

    Video.. dammit! I want video! Is this not the age of YouTube?

    Paris, because she has the right idea about online video..

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    forget "the cloud" ...

    ... just wait for "the Google swarm" as they deploy thousands of these to bring back the latest pics for Google yardview.

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  6. Colin Millar
    Coat

    Truly ashamed of myself

    But it has to be said

    It gives geeks a whole new chat up line

    Wanna see my pocket-chopper?

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  7. Barnaby Self
    Paris Hilton

    IWOOT

    I cant wait for these to come on sale at IWOOT!! Imagine all the fun you could have with one of these.

    Paris because, well, imagine the videos you could record :-p

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  8. Sam

    @alex

    video;

    http://www.proxdynamics.com/news/france_3_television_footage/

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  9. dervheid
    Thumb Up

    watched the vid

    WANT ONE NOW!!

    Awesome!

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  10. Geoff Mackenzie

    Wow.

    Just, wow.

    Want.

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  11. Hywel Thomas
    Black Helicopters

    Is is available in...

    ... black ?

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  12. Rob Haswell

    Want

    I've long-wanted a micro chopper that is fully functional, I'm really excited by this, sounds like an excellent toy! Should make a fine replacement for proper helis in poor weather.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    people who want one.

    if its for the military, it will cost 10 times what its worth.

    you will have to wait a couple of weeks for the chinese knock off.

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  14. Dave
    Black Helicopters

    Wants, nay needs

    ..Actual size...

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  15. StopthePropaganda
    Black Helicopters

    the stocking stuffer guys make one that does true hover

    look up the Silverlit Atlas. It hovers and has true forward and hover. From the pic here, looks like it uses the same electromagnet system as the Atlas.

    They also make the "Tandem Z" which is a dual rotor mini Chinook helicopter with forward, reverse, etc.

    The biggest difference, the Silverlit models cost a helluva lot less and doesn't "hint" at future features that would only be delivered should a multimillion dollar grant be received.

    Companies like this aren't interested in selling kit, they're interested in getting government money.

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  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why does it look like it folds out of a Zippo?

    although if it does, I'd want one even more. Just for waging war/spying on the neighbours

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Paparazzis will love this

    It's perfect for stalkers and paparazzis. Expect exciting pictures of celebrities having sex filmed through the windows on the 30th floor of high rises.

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  18. Ascylto

    MP Bovverers

    Imagine these hovering outside MPs and Ministers houses. Well, they've nothing to hide, have they ... otherwise they wouldn't be promoting ID Cards would they?

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  19. Christian Berger

    Better solution for video

    Well if you just want to get video from places you can't reach, you could get a line-camera and build it into a boomerang. You could then use one of those video transmitters to get the video out to a reciever. There you add vertical sync pulses and store it onto television tape. If you then digitice that you can cross-correlate the individual pictures to get a moving panorama that stands in place, more or less. Alternatively you can use the front and back porch of your video signal to encode the direction from a compas.

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