6 ms·
Suppose a 250g drone fails mid-air, hypothetically at a height of 100m, and falls freely. At terminal velocity, it's a lethal projectile. Have no illusions abo
by loeber 11y ago
Suppose a 250g drone fails mid-air, hypothetically at a height of 100m, and falls freely. At terminal velocity, it's a lethal projectile.
Have no illusions about the damage that can be done by small things falling from a great height, or travelling at a high speed in general. The 250g weight is entirely reasonable -- I would actually claim that it is quite generous.
- smackfu 11y agoHeh, they actually do that calculation in the task force report, from the max allowed height.
- nqzero 11y agoguess we should start regulating rocks that weigh more than 250g too then ...
- tomswartz07 11y agoOnly if you're flying rocks at over 328 feet in the air.
- afarrell 11y agoI'm pretty sure that regularly throwing half-pound rocks high in the air is already regulated.
- jnbiche 11y agoPerhaps in some urban areas, but I seriously doubt there are federal regulations about throwing rock projectiles into the air with no intent to hit or harm a person.
- bdamm 11y agoFAA says that pilots may drop objects from airplanes, but puts the onus on the pilot to ensure "no hazard is created". And, once the object touches the ground, it becomes subject to local laws. So dropping a rock onto someone's property could be quite a few violations depending on the outcome and the property.
- jnbiche 11y agoThe question was concerning throwing rocks "up into the air", not throwing projectiles from an airplane. If it involves airplanes, you can rest assured that the FAA will regulate it, so no surprise there.
- Someone1234 11y agoTechnically we already do, but indirectly. In order to get a 250g rock up high enough to reach it's terminal velocity before hitting the earth again, you'd need some kind of launcher (e.g. catapult, trebuchet, Slingshot, etc) which are regulated. For example, New York made Slingshot a Class-4 misdemeanor.
- delecti 11y agoI don't imagine there are terribly many rocks getting 100m in the air except by human action.
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago>At terminal velocity, it's a lethal projectile. So is a bullet. Guess we should require all bullets to be registered.
- DennisP 11y agoTerminal velocity of a 250g aircraft is much slower than terminal velocity of a 250g rock.
- sokoloff 11y agoA 250g helicopter with stopped rotors isn't that different from a rock.
- Bjartr 11y agoDepends on whether or not the rotors autorotate.
- jacquesm 11y agoEven if they don't they might cause the body to rotate.
- thescriptkiddie 11y agoEven in the worst case of a quadrotor - which can't glide or autorotate or fly with a missing rotor - a 250g one is not going to become a lethal projectile at terminal velocity. Even the heavy batteries from larger multirotors seem to survive a 100m fall uneventfully, they just make a soft thud when they land. A softball weighs something like 200g and getting hit in the head with one of those at 85 mph doesn't kill you.
- bigiain 11y agoSuppose a skateboard or bicycle falls freely, hypothetically, from the top of Lombard St... Do we now require registration and quarter million dollar fines for all bicycles and skateboards that weigh more than 250g?