Comments on: The Amazing, All-Purpose, Styrofoam Drone

By: kim

kim — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:37:39 +0000

I have a Question? Who makes these Raven drones ?.…Is it General dy…or boeing …does any one know? Please e-mail me @khbovino@yahoo.com thank you & God bless!

By: Suresh

Suresh — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:08:09 +0000

what difference does it make ? tell it to fly anyway you want to. Why cant you ask it to change course during flight ? you could fly it remote and fly it any which way you would want to point by point or shortest distance… over the curved surface of earth… 3 dimensional geometry.

By: B.Smitty

B.Smitty — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 15:42:51 +0000

Give each squad a Fire Scout? Umm, no.
Ravens cost around $25,000 each and can be carried in a backpack.
Fire Scouts cost around $7 million each and require separate airlift sorties to bring into theater.
Plus Fire Scout probably takes a ground crew of similar size to the squad it’s supposedly supporting, not to mention far more support infrastructure than a Raven.

By: Raven Guy

Raven Guy — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 22:12:31 +0000

All of you seem to be a little misinformed. I flew them “over there” and would be happy to answer direct questions if the info is not restricted or classified

By: TrustButVerify

TrustButVerify — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:40:16 +0000

Charles, if memory serves, the Raven flies a series of waypoints entered on a laptop. Or rather, it was three years ago– no telling how many upgrades have come out since then.

By: jtw

jtw — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 16:49:46 +0000

I seen videos posted of US patrols being ambushed by RPG and machine gun teams on the sides of the road.
Makes me wonder what kind of competance we have in tactic. Makes sense you would have loitering air surveilance for ANY vehicle patrol you have. Do we just send out patrols and hope they see something in their direct line of sight? Or do they get a little help in surveillance and recon?
And it makes me scratch my head when we have no defense against simple buried explosives why we do vehicle patrols unless they are dug up by robot bulldozers and labeled as “secure routes”. And then to keep those secure routes isolated from the Iraqi population and monitored 24/7. I know easier said then done but I think we are throwing bodies at the problem instead of a little extra effort and patience.

By: jtw

jtw — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:42:41 +0000

HAVE NO FEAR! RAVEN DRONE IS HERE.
Is this a joke?
The military work’s in squads right? Wouldnt it be better to just give each squad there own firescout heli or something that is at least as big? I mean if you can afford humvees for them all, then why cant you give them a UAV at least the size of a small car. It’ll be able to fly higher then this toy. It won’t be as sensitive to weather. And can carry weapons. I’m thinking a humvee launched heli like the firescout. Or at least something big but not too big with VTOL.
I think if a soldier is in the position he needs to launch his stryofoam spy drone, he is probably already screwed and has no clue what’s going on around him and is probably going ot get mortared or indirect or direct RPG fire or something equivalant.
I can’t wait to see the super mini UAV’s. You know the kind you power up by twirling the spring propeller to give it tension. MAX RANGE 15 FEET, Flight time 3 seconds. 3 pixel Black and white camera. Good for seeing around a corner or over a wall for .5 seconds. What a joke.

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:56:29 +0000

I wonder how UAV control works: is it point-to-point or waypoint based?