Command-link TV-guided rocket: is this even Legal?

Hey RF i was browsing and found this interesting website (wich just so happens not to have a domain name? whatever..). Apparently this is an oldschool (80-90ies?) RC rocket with a camera transmitter in the nose. Frankly i think the idea is awesome and i would try it; but this begs the question: is this stuff even legal?

https://130.94.182.150/eyerock.htm


Businesslike


Save for the wood; i couldn't tell this apart from an early Sidewinder


Now this is some oldschool FPOV

https://130.94.182.150/ The website itself is full of other interesting things like
https://130.94.182.150/guidance.htm <<< SACLOS TV-guidance (holy mackerel!)
https://130.94.182.150/rcrock.htm < oldschool RC rockets


So yes, basically this is my question:
At which point does an amateur guided rocket become an illegal missile? (hard mode: except when you crash it into things or do even more darwinian stuff like putting explosives on it) With autopilots and mil-grade electronics now being easily available i think this is a relevant question

If you ask me, if we develop those FPV , one day someone will use it in a wrong way. This is the sad thing because it&#8217;s an interesting part of the hobby.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...on-my-high-powered-rocket&p=305596#post305596

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...pit-for-my-Cruise-Rockets&p=627243#post627243

-- Roger

Area66 said:

If you ask me, if we develop those FPV , one day someone will use it in a wrong way. This is the sad thing because it&#8217;s an interesting part of the hobby.

Click to expand...

There were people saying somewhat the same thing about G motors back when they were new.

If a cardboard rocket with a $50 camera on it is such a threat, why does the military spend millions to develop their missiles? Why would a rocket with a FPV system be a bigger threat than a radio controlled airplane or helicopter?

We shouldn't let irrational paranoia prevent advancement of our hobby.

-- Roger

I just ordered over a $ 1000 of FPV stuff this week, I don't think I paranoid that much. But yes the RC planes can be used in a wrong way too. I'm just worry about our government here in Canada, they are fast to ban thing and make innocent peoples pay for it.

Thanks Roger! I guess i should have specified "in Canada"; but knowing what Uncle Sam dosen't like works wonders for life expectancy. So basically it is forbidden to even think about guiding a rocket towards an aircraft. The laws must be similar.

I guess this means that my plan for a super-advanced jet-powered UAV with air-intercept radar and air-to-air guided rockets goes down in flames :lol:

And i agree that this paranoia is wholly irrational. It would take so much money and design and testing to make a useful weapon that the terrorists might as well abandon terrorism and start a defence business. It would take the biggest mini-turbines on the market to push anything serious. And i guess that the RC hobby community is so close-knit that anything of the sort would be spotted and stopped way before anything happens

I tough the OP was serious, if I know I will have not reply. I was not talking about shooting a plane, but more about an idiot who will crash his rocket on something, intentionally or not, explosive or not. You link the Rocket Plane of budwhaeizza on a post here; this is something that concerns me as a security risk at launch. Last launch he mixes his buttons and crashes it. Good think it was only the triple fire to open the chute and not the directions making the thing land on someone or a car.



Now what his the purpose to have a FPV on a rocket ? , I understand on a Rocket Glider for the glide portion of the flight, but on a pure rocket ? Active stabilisation for rocket is the thing peoples should work on.

What I gathered from the Article was this:

"A clear plastic dome from a craft store
is used for the actual nose cone and is taped on."

A Source for clear Plastic Domes! Most Excellent as I want to do some Scale Missiles with realistic looking Nose Cones.

I dough they successfully launch that rocket, these movables fins ( canard) will never hold in flight

Area66 said:

I tough the OP was serious, if I know I will have not reply. I was not talking about shooting a plane, but more about an idiot who will crash his rocket on something, intentionally or not, explosive or not. You link the Rocket Plane of budwhaeizza on a post here; this is something that concerns me as a security risk at launch. Last launch he mixes his buttons and crashes it. Good think it was only the triple fire to open the chute and not the directions making the thing land on someone or a car.
Now what his the purpose to have a FPV on a rocket ? , I understand on a Rocket Glider for the glide portion of the flight, but on a pure rocket ? Active stabilisation for rocket is the thing peoples should work on.

Click to expand...

No no my question was serious, i was just making a joke. You are right on it all, people clearly over-estimate their capability to control what is essentially a very high speed experimental UAV prototype. Rockets have a fixed, relatively predictable path; we can all imagine why it's dangerous to give it the ability to go anywhere.

I don't think they launched that rocket, but i found another quite similar but modern, that actually flew! This one is not command-link nor TV guided; but it's pretty sound.
https://sites.google.com/site/airwavershr/Home/guided-rocket

op:

Last year there was a young lady present a paper at NARAM on using active guidance to keep her rocket going straight up.

She actually made three rockets. The first used fins in the front of the rocket. She then used fins at the base. And finally she gimbal led the motor. She launched at quite and angle and the rocket righted itself and flew straight up.

For control she used a ready made auto pilot board.


Kirk

1tree said:

Last year there was a young lady present a paper at NARAM on using active guidance to keep her rocket going straight up.

She actually made three rockets. The first used fins in the front of the rocket. She then used fins at the base. And finally she gimbal led the motor. She launched at quite and angle and the rocket righted itself and flew straight up.

For control she used a ready made auto pilot board.



Kirk

Click to expand...

This was active stabilization not remote guided rocket