Message posted by Will on June 08, 2007 at 14:38:45 PST:
Okay, here's what I quick threw together in Swift 3D: Rear shot, the internal fuel tank and first stage solid rocket engine can be seen: Front shot, the needle can be seen as well as the front, and intake. Note the complete lack of control surfaces. While modeling, I got the idea of articulating that needle. Gotta figure out how rotation on the roll axis would work though. Side at an angle shot, nothing new is seen other than the profile. Forward and upwards shot, just an overall view. It still needs work, but the radar cross section probably wouldn't be that much. With scattering paint and the fact that the thing is small to begin with, it probably wouldn't be very visible. Thinking about it, this thing would fly more like a missile than a plane. It seems to be a hybrid, a missile with a flying wing design and a jet engine. Anyway, I would probably make a panel on the bottom of the plane Plexiglas and put the camera behind that. I would probably also put all the computer stuff in the needle forwards of the cylinder fuel tank. As for communication, I might have used a satellite phone and wired the speaker and microphone to data in and out, then wrote a program for a laptop and a phone line. To keep the video feed within obvious bandwidth limitations, I'd probably keep the framerate fast, but the resolution small, maybe 320x240 or smaller. Also, note the complete lack of landing gear. It seems to be pretty much one-time use. Good thing, too. Once that thing is noticed and after you get your shots zipping around the Groom airspace, you do NOT want to leave any trace. You would probably just fly it eastward and then trigger the self-destruct at a high altitude.
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/5339/planexa2.jpg
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/8706/plane2ce9.jpg
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9085/plane3uu0.jpg
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/457/plane4ev5.jpg
In Reply to: Re: security posted by Will on June 08, 2007 at 12:45:45 PST:
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