stray drones? unidentified drones?

[Zbench]

Surprised some enterprising individual hasn’t taken a shot at one with a Barret .50 cal or if low enough a 10 gauge shotgun. What is unknown can become known when it is a twisted bunch of metal on the ground.

 

[MikeT]

Based on what?

Simple , because we can.

 

[b.wieting]

An acquaintance in the business told me this is unresearched reporting. Night videos over NJ show known cargo drones (which have COA from the FAA). No connection the daytime still photo. Embarrassing I think for a guy like Barry McCaffrey.

 

[Capt. Eric]

Take a deep breath and count to ten. Let's add a little common sense.

If it was some sort of spy drone, would you put lights on it? Would you keep flying it after you made national news?
So I think we can eliminate nefarious purposes.

Shoot it down? Over the most densely populated state in the country? 'cause throwing lead into the sky over the suburbs is always a good idea. Thank God law enforcement and the military are smarter than that.

Is it dangerous simply because it flies over houses? Maybe not too much more so than the thousands of other flights that fly across your air space all the time.


my guess - It's one of the following:
- Hobby drone fliers playing with a new toy, loving that they are on the news
- College students working on their latest project, also enjoying being on the news.
- Commercial drone developer working on their latest design and testing it out. Not wanting to disclose it just yet, but also generating great free publicity for when they do go public.

Maybe it's none of these, but honestly, I don't really care. I'm not doing anything wrong that needs to be kept secret. They can quietly go about photographing my boring house or listening to my boring phone calls.

 

[Art Upton]

An acquaintance in the business told me this is unresearched reporting. Night videos over NJ show known cargo drones (which have COA from the FAA). No connection the daytime still photo. Embarrassing I think for a guy like Barry McCaffrey.

If they were 'All' cargo drones, the state and feds would have said so already
Currently saying 'we don't know' is kind'a bad

Unless using cargo drones was to be some secret or something...

Also, why the reports of 'They go dark' when approached?

 

[3stoogesrocketry]

The amount of hysteria over this has been incredible to me. The general public is really losing their tenuous grasp on sanity with how much this has stirred up people. I'm really disturbed at the amount of people calling for these airborne vehicles to be shot down (over populated areas, no less) without having any idea what they could be. Why is an unknown thing automatically a threat? Why don't people assume that it's perfectly innocent? For example, it could be companies testing drone delivery services or any number of drone-taxi star-ups.

Like @James Duffy said above, if it were serious problem, you bet there'd be more of a reaction by authorities. It reminds me of the hot air balloon incidents all over again. People freaked out, and it was eventually learned that the authorities/military were aware of it from long before it was spotted by the public, and deemed it not an urgent threat. My guess is this will be the same, and people will have learned nothing.....again.

Who do you think are flying / controlling these all across the country on the same day , same time from the east coast to the west cost? It's not private citizens.



People are just pull8ng their heads out of the sand and are starting to think for themselves. "Nothing to see here, resume your normall activities"

 

[Art Upton]

I wonder how Drone Sales have done in the past 10 days ???

 

[Spacedog49Krell]

Come to Dallas, Texas and I can take you to a location where you can observe a hex- or octa-pod drone flying over every 15-20 minutes during daylight hours. You can get sharp 4K videos and not those fuzzy blinky light night videos.

 

[3stoogesrocketry]

Come to Dallas, Texas and I can take you to a location where you can observe a hex- or octa-pod drone flying over every 15-20 minutes during daylight hours. You can get sharp 4K videos and not those fuzzy blinky light videos.

My area in Missouri has less then 1000 people in a 500 sq mile area. Thursday night we see 3 side by side 100 feet apart or so less then 200 feet off the ground , just flying down the main drag in town.

 

[Spacedog49Krell]

My area in Missouri has less then 1000 people in a 500 sq mile area. Thursday night we see 3 side by side 100 feet apart or so less then 200 feet off the ground , just flying down the main drag in town.

Our powerline infrastructure is so massive that drones are a necessity. In the 1980's I worked on a RF powerline injection system to transmit data through powerlines. It was also used to locate problem areas along the powerlines. 20-30 years ago, they sent crews out with receivers in the trucks to look for drop offs in signal. Now, they send drones.

 

[Zbench]

Take a deep breath and count to ten. Let's add a little common

Shoot it down? Over the most densely populated state in the country? 'cause throwing lead into the sky over the suburbs is always a good idea. Thank God law enforcement and the military are smarter than that.

You might be surprised to learn that NJ has a large body of water immediately to the east called the Atlantic Ocean. I have been told no one lives there.

It would be a very easy matter for a squadron of Apache Helicopters to loiter off the coast and wait for the nightly infiltration from the “mother ship” which is alleged to be off the coast in international waters.

The 30mm M230 chain gun will make short work of any drone unless it is not of earthly origin.

 

[mitchboese]

Take a deep breath and count to ten. Let's add a little common sense.

If it was some sort of spy drone, would you put lights on it? Would you keep flying it after you made national news?
So I think we can eliminate nefarious purposes.

Shoot it down? Over the most densely populated state in the country? 'cause throwing lead into the sky over the suburbs is always a good idea. Thank God law enforcement and the military are smarter than that.

Is it dangerous simply because it flies over houses? Maybe not too much more so than the thousands of other flights that fly across your air space all the time.


my guess - It's one of the following:
- Hobby drone fliers playing with a new toy, loving that they are on the news
- College students working on their latest project, also enjoying being on the news.
- Commercial drone developer working on their latest design and testing it out. Not wanting to disclose it just yet, but also generating great free publicity for when they do go public.

Maybe it's none of these, but honestly, I don't really care. I'm not doing anything wrong that needs to be kept secret. They can quietly go about photographing my boring house or listening to my boring phone calls.

Anyone ask Elon?

 

[Capt. Eric]

You might be surprised to learn that NJ has a large body of water immediately to the east called the Atlantic Ocean. I have been told no one lives there.

It would be a very easy matter for a squadron of Apache Helicopters to loiter off the coast and wait for the nightly infiltration from the “mother ship” which is alleged to be off the coast in international waters.

The 30mm M230 chain gun will make short work of any drone unless it is not of earthly origin.

An ocean? Right here? Who've thought!

Apache helicopters don't loiter very long, and the idea of a mother, father or any extended family of ships off the coast is just too silly to bother with.

And finally...

 

[Zbench]

An ocean? Right here? Who've thought!

Apache helicopters don't loiter very long, and the idea of a mother, father or any extended family of ships off the coast is just too silly to bother with.

And finally...

Umm, you do realize the Apache is an attack helicopter designed to loiter on the battlefield and look for targets of opportunity, right? I’m sure you also realize that it has a 300 mile range and that’s without dipping into an optional auxiliary fuel tank, right? And Ft Dix is right there, so I have a feeling that if the Army wanted to, they could make it work.

Failing all that, we have lots of fixed wing aircraft that could do the job, not the least of which is the fearsome A-10 Thunderbolt which is also designed to loiter on the battlefield and also has a 30mm cannon.

 

[Capt. Eric]

Umm, you do realize the Apache is an attack helicopter designed to loiter on the battlefield and look for targets of opportunity, right? I’m sure you also realize that it has a 300 mile range and that’s without dipping into an optional auxiliary fuel tank, right? And Ft Dix is right there, so I have a feeling that if the Army wanted to, they could make it work.

Failing all that, we have lots of fixed wing aircraft that could do the job, not the least of which is the fearsome A-10 Thunderbolt which is also designed to loiter on the battlefield and also has a 30mm cannon.

But it's a really big, big ocean.

Without narrowing that time, distance, and area down, you're just wasting a lot of fuel. Not to mention... THERE IS NO MOTHERSHIP!

You're reading the wrong websites.

 

[grillsjosephbus]

Free skeet

 

[MikeT]

I wonder how Drone Sales have done in the past 10 days ???

They dropped like a rock and have been flat since the "drone craze" that caused congress to mandate the FAA to regulate modelers that weren't the problem in the first place.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Seems to me that some well placed searchlights and a good photographer with a fast long lens might take some of the mystery away.

 

[Art Upton]

Seems to me that some well placed searchlights and a good photographer with a fast long lens might take some of the mystery away.

Like the search lights in the Los Angles UFO attack just at WWII?

Still no good photos of those

 

[jgarbus]

While driving through Georgia yesterday we saw a formation of maybe 6-8 drones flying formation directly behind and below an aircraft. I can only guess the aircraft was in control of them. As the plane turned, drones would follow.

Edit: this was 10am in the morning so clearly not being hidden. Was pretty interesting to see them tailing the other aircraft

 

[bschultz32]

 

[Greg Furtman]

Like the search lights in the Los Angles UFO attack just at WWII?

Still no good photos of those

I had to look it up.

https://www.history.com/news/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles

 

[jderimig]

Questions I have.

1. Assuming my premise is correct, why are all of these drones flying at night?
2. If they are flying at night to be stealth (fail), then why do they turn their lights on?

I have my hypotheses but will save that for another post.

 

[Spacedog49Krell]

Questions I have.

1. Assuming my premise is correct, why are all of these drones flying at night?
2. If they are flying at night to be stealth (fail), then why do they turn their lights on?

I have my hypotheses but will save that for another post.

1. The superstitious fear of the unknown in the darkness.
2. To avoid being hit by one of the stealthy drones flying nearby.

 

[modeltrains]

If it was some sort of spy drone, would you put lights on it?

Different genre, but yes, sometimes you do make yourself obvious in order to disguise your purpose.
My Dad was USN during the cold war & there was one night their DD was sent to go get some intel of some kind along the coast of a country who were not exactly our best friends but were not overtly hostile either.
Ship totally violated the rules of the road and rigged navigation lights indicating it was a vessel pulling something under tow.
Everybody left them alone and stayed well away from them.

 

[Greg Furtman]

Different genre, but yes, sometimes you do make yourself obvious in order to disguise your purpose.
My Dad was USN during the cold war & there was one night their DD was sent to go get some intel of some kind along the coast of a country who were not exactly our best friends but were not overtly hostile either.
Ship totally violated the rules of the road and rigged navigation lights indicating it was a vessel pulling something under tow.
Everybody left them alone and stayed well away from them.

DD?

 

[Capt. Eric]

DD?

Navy vessel type designator. A "DD" is a Destroyer. Traditionally, small, fast, multi-mission vessels, often used for capital ship defense (Protecting the carriers), but can fill many other roles.

Old and new:

 

[jhill9693]

1. Assuming my premise is correct, why are all of these drones flying at night?
2. If they are flying at night to be stealth (fail), then why do they turn their lights on?

Maybe they are not only flying at night, but are not easily visible during the day.

 

[jadebox]

Maybe they are not only flying at night, but are not easily visible during the day.

Which again begs the question of why they would have lights on them.

 

[NTP2]

Which again begs the question of why they would have lights on them.

so you can see them, obvusly.