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> The airport said it had spent several million pounds to purchase the equipment. I feel like this is a problem some smart people could solve quickly if they w

> The airport said it had spent several million pounds to purchase the equipment. I feel like this is a problem some smart people could solve quickly if they were asked, similar to the healthcare.gov situation. Ask some MIT students to come up with a solution over a weekend and I bet they would deliver. Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science.

djohnston 8y ago
isn't it kind of rocket science?
growlist 8y ago
> Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science. But perhaps doing it in a way that doesn't shower the runway with dangerous debris, is?
- adossi 8y ago
  Don't they already shoot Canada geese at airports because they're such a nuisance? I imagine a similar tactic could be used for drones
  - _underfl0w_ 8y ago
    They also hire people to covertly shoot the little birds that get stuck flying around inside Walmart (B&Q, $megacorp, etc.) Met a guy while he was on the clock doing that, in fact.
JStanton617 8y ago
Or just some annoyed passengers with a roll of toilet paper? https://imgur.com/gallery/0b4wF3V https://imgur.com/gallery/0b4wF3V
United857 8y ago
The tricky part I'm guessing is doing it safely without collateral damage, especially in a crowded area like an airport. A bullet or other kinetic object could do damage if it falls back down to earth. A directed energy/RF weapon could possibly fry other electronics in aircraft nearby as well.
- oliveshell 8y ago
  You might be interested to hear that anti-drone net guns are already on the market to address this. This [1] is a handheld one, though automated permanent installations that use acoustic signatures to track drones have already been installed on embassies and such. [1]: https://www.dronedefence.co.uk/products/netgun-x1/ https://www.dronedefence.co.uk/products/netgun-x1/
hardlianotion 8y ago
Probably good to understand what the problem actually is. I don't think _everybody_ involved isn't smart.
isostatic 8y ago
> Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science. No, but it's not a matter of some yahoos with a gun shooting them: https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1080724993238069249 https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1080724993238069249
- darkpuma 8y ago
  Pistols and rifles, not birdshot? RPGs? What a complete joke. If you put these morons in charge of hunting birds they'd probably conclude that shooting birds doesn't work either. Try hunting birds with pistols and rifles and you'll have the same result. Meanwhile in Kentucky: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/judge-rules-in-favor-of-drone-slayer-dismisses-lawsuit-filed-by-pilot/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/judge-rules-in-f... Meanwhile in Virginia: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/65-year-old-woman-takes-out-drone-over-her-virginia-property-with-one-shot/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/65-year-old-woma... Meanwhile in Tennessee: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/man-takes-drone-out-for-a-sunset-flight-drone-gets-shot-down/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/man-takes-drone-... And for the unaware, birdshot solves the "what goes up must come down" problem; the shot is light enough that when it falls back down the air resistance has slowed it to a harmless speed. In other words, the terminal velocity is MUCH lower than the muzzle velocity. Getting hit by falling birdshot doesn't bruise, let alone kill. If somebody were serious about solving this problem, instead of just trying to justify impotent anti-drone legislation (that won't stop bad actors from throwing together rc quads from scratch) they'd ask gunsmiths to create for them a fully automatic shotgun tuned to cycle with birdshot, with a large magazine capacity, and create radar systems that can distinguish between birds and drones (probably with a human in the loop.) Anti-drone micro-CIWS. Other promising solutions include anti-drone falcons (potentially hazardous to the bird, I've seen what those props can do to human fingers...) and hunter-killer drones piloted by superior pilots. A good defense would be a defense in depth, adopt as many of these systems as is economical. Considering the economic harm that shutting down a major airport can cause, the budget should be large.
  - glenneroo 8y ago
    I think you might be underestimating the problem. Airports are generally spread across huge areas (square miles/km i.e. one or more football fields) and birdshot from shotguns has an effective maximum range of about 250 meters (according to various websites and charts), therefore you'd need a ton (hundreds?) of these micro-CIWS devices scattered around the perimeter to have any fighting chance. Also you want to make sure you don't hit any airplanes or helicopters already in the air. I can imagine certification from various government agencies in any country would take several years at best. Furthermore, imagine you have your dream-drone-killer... how do you even find them? Neither of these recent sightings were even verified to be drones, they just received reports of sightings, therefore initially they would need to deploy devices to find/verify them. Once spotted, it wouldn't be hard to send a couple trained shooters with shotguns loaded with birdshot, assuming knowing their location isn't already enough to find the pilots...
roywiggins 8y ago
The problem is presumably making sure you don't damage anything else on the ground while you're at it, and proving that the everyone's satisfaction.
- gm3dmo 8y ago
  As the philosopher Connery said: https://en.m.wikiquote.org https://en.m.wikiquote.org › wiki › Charl... Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky. https://youtu.be/TseOHDBZ8MA https://youtu.be/TseOHDBZ8MA
maxxxxx 8y ago
"Ask some MIT students to come up with a solution over a weekend and I bet they would deliver. Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science." It gets a little more complicated in the real world if you don't want to shoot down the wrong flying objects and also not kill people on the ground.
red_admiral 8y ago
The average shepherd-boy-with-a-slingshot from the past could probably find a practical solution to this particular problem.

djohnston 8y ago

isn't it kind of rocket science?

growlist 8y ago

> Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science. But perhaps doing it in a way that doesn't shower the runway with dangerous debris, is?

adossi 8y ago
Don't they already shoot Canada geese at airports because they're such a nuisance? I imagine a similar tactic could be used for drones
- _underfl0w_ 8y ago
  They also hire people to covertly shoot the little birds that get stuck flying around inside Walmart (B&Q, $megacorp, etc.) Met a guy while he was on the clock doing that, in fact.

JStanton617 8y ago

Or just some annoyed passengers with a roll of toilet paper? https://imgur.com/gallery/0b4wF3V https://imgur.com/gallery/0b4wF3V

United857 8y ago

The tricky part I'm guessing is doing it safely without collateral damage, especially in a crowded area like an airport. A bullet or other kinetic object could do damage if it falls back down to earth. A directed energy/RF weapon could possibly fry other electronics in aircraft nearby as well.

oliveshell 8y ago
You might be interested to hear that anti-drone net guns are already on the market to address this. This [1] is a handheld one, though automated permanent installations that use acoustic signatures to track drones have already been installed on embassies and such. [1]: https://www.dronedefence.co.uk/products/netgun-x1/ https://www.dronedefence.co.uk/products/netgun-x1/

hardlianotion 8y ago

Probably good to understand what the problem actually is. I don't think _everybody_ involved isn't smart.

isostatic 8y ago

> Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science. No, but it's not a matter of some yahoos with a gun shooting them: https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1080724993238069249 https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1080724993238069249

darkpuma 8y ago
Pistols and rifles, not birdshot? RPGs? What a complete joke. If you put these morons in charge of hunting birds they'd probably conclude that shooting birds doesn't work either. Try hunting birds with pistols and rifles and you'll have the same result. Meanwhile in Kentucky: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/judge-rules-in-favor-of-drone-slayer-dismisses-lawsuit-filed-by-pilot/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/judge-rules-in-f... Meanwhile in Virginia: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/65-year-old-woman-takes-out-drone-over-her-virginia-property-with-one-shot/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/65-year-old-woma... Meanwhile in Tennessee: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/man-takes-drone-out-for-a-sunset-flight-drone-gets-shot-down/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/man-takes-drone-... And for the unaware, birdshot solves the "what goes up must come down" problem; the shot is light enough that when it falls back down the air resistance has slowed it to a harmless speed. In other words, the terminal velocity is MUCH lower than the muzzle velocity. Getting hit by falling birdshot doesn't bruise, let alone kill. If somebody were serious about solving this problem, instead of just trying to justify impotent anti-drone legislation (that won't stop bad actors from throwing together rc quads from scratch) they'd ask gunsmiths to create for them a fully automatic shotgun tuned to cycle with birdshot, with a large magazine capacity, and create radar systems that can distinguish between birds and drones (probably with a human in the loop.) Anti-drone micro-CIWS. Other promising solutions include anti-drone falcons (potentially hazardous to the bird, I've seen what those props can do to human fingers...) and hunter-killer drones piloted by superior pilots. A good defense would be a defense in depth, adopt as many of these systems as is economical. Considering the economic harm that shutting down a major airport can cause, the budget should be large.
- glenneroo 8y ago
  I think you might be underestimating the problem. Airports are generally spread across huge areas (square miles/km i.e. one or more football fields) and birdshot from shotguns has an effective maximum range of about 250 meters (according to various websites and charts), therefore you'd need a ton (hundreds?) of these micro-CIWS devices scattered around the perimeter to have any fighting chance. Also you want to make sure you don't hit any airplanes or helicopters already in the air. I can imagine certification from various government agencies in any country would take several years at best. Furthermore, imagine you have your dream-drone-killer... how do you even find them? Neither of these recent sightings were even verified to be drones, they just received reports of sightings, therefore initially they would need to deploy devices to find/verify them. Once spotted, it wouldn't be hard to send a couple trained shooters with shotguns loaded with birdshot, assuming knowing their location isn't already enough to find the pilots...

roywiggins 8y ago

The problem is presumably making sure you don't damage anything else on the ground while you're at it, and proving that the everyone's satisfaction.

gm3dmo 8y ago
As the philosopher Connery said: https://en.m.wikiquote.org https://en.m.wikiquote.org › wiki › Charl... Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky. https://youtu.be/TseOHDBZ8MA https://youtu.be/TseOHDBZ8MA

maxxxxx 8y ago

"Ask some MIT students to come up with a solution over a weekend and I bet they would deliver. Knocking a slow moving object out of the sky is literally not rocket science." It gets a little more complicated in the real world if you don't want to shoot down the wrong flying objects and also not kill people on the ground.

red_admiral 8y ago

The average shepherd-boy-with-a-slingshot from the past could probably find a practical solution to this particular problem.