Message posted by Will on June 08, 2007 at 12:45:45 PST:
If you were to attempt such a thing with an RC aircraft, you would probably want to build it yourself. The requirements would have to be: A camera with a live feed. You would need something to receive that feed. The whole purpose is to see up close what you can't from any of the hiking spots, and good luck flying blind. Stealthy, for one. Choppers can't shoot down what they don't know is there. I'd design it SR-71-ish. Long range, nonstandard frequency communications. In addition, it's also gotta be real-time. Anyone who has used a flight simulation program on a bad computer knows what it's like flying an aircraft from even a few seconds in the past. It's also gotta be able to absolutely incinerate itself in case things go south. You don't want to lose communication with it and then suddenly have something with your fingerprints all over it laying around in Emigrant Valley. I'd suggest a thermite mixture along the fuselage's support ribs, triggered by two magnesium strips running along the top and bottom of the plane, with another line of thermite along the center tube of your wing structures. Unless you take the SR-71 idea, in which case I'd just line your entire support structure with thermite and crisscross the whole dang thing with magnesium strips. As for how to initiate the reaction, stick an extra spark plug in whatever you use as a fuel tank to just blow that, which should ignite the strips. You also need it to be fast. Propellers aren't going to go fast enough. You're probably going to want some kind of rocket, at least to get it to the point that you can kick in a second stage jet. If you've got an ego and a LOT of time, I'd suggest taking a model rocket engine, and sticking it inside what will become a small ramjet once that's spent. Since it's smaller, it shouldn't need as much intake to work. But really, if you haven't been designing these for a while, use a simple pulsejet. They're loud and terribly inefficient, but hey, there's a reason the Germans used them to power the V2 rockets. I'll design one for giggles and model it in 3D for you guys. Don't expect a masterpiece of aerodynamic design though, my first successful rocket->ramjet test was just last night.
In Reply to: security posted by tony on June 08, 2007 at 10:27:14 PST:
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