US spec-ops get robot whispercopter kill fleet this month

The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) secret military forces are receiving their first robotic whisper-mode helicopters, according to reports. The plan is for the you-never-saw-us-we-aren't-even-here brigade to receive a ten-strong fleet of Boeing A160T "Hummingbird" droid kill-choppers, under an extended demonstration …

[jacob]

so..

When will the mini version with nerf missile launchers and airsoft machine guns be available for covert office warfare?

black helicopter for obvious reasons

[Anonymous Coward]

"four times quieter"

This is really annoying, surely it "makes one quarter of the noise"?

It's as daft as describing a new car as being "four times slower".

I know it's a quote, and the source is no doubt a pig ignorant moron

with a severe head wound, but isn't that what editors are for?

[Jan]

Forester?

Ain´t that a Subaru?

Black helicopter - what else?

[Geoff Spick]

How will we know...

when the black helicopters arrive, if we can't see them. This will do my sense of paranoia no good at all.

[Seán]

Harsh

Editors may well behave like pig ignorant morons with head wounds but there's no need to rub their noses in it. 1000lbs capacity so it could carry two us soldiers and their lunch.

[Jon Double Nice]

Didn't Airwolf have this years ago?

Whisper mode, that is.

[Tim]

Price?

Any idea how much these are? Strip out the military stuff & it's be just the job, like having your own private pilot; hop on board, key the destination into the GPS & lay back for a snooze. Got to be better than travelling Ryanair anyway.

Tim#3

[glennog]

RotM

How long before these choppers, the hovery whirlybirds and other unmanned semi-autonomous vehicles turn against us, spawning a need by US and UK govts to commission the creation of a clone army who will eventually (after about 3 episodes) be embroiled in a battle of galactic proportions - lets call it the Drone Wars. And maybe that war would be fought on a weekly basis, and reported on the Sky Movie channel (even though it's not a movie!).

Maybe a galaxy far far away isn't so far far away after all...

[Chris G]

The next big UK purchase

One of these hovering over every crossroads in Britain. I'm sure the likes of G. Broon and wacki Jaqui would love these.

[Jeff Rowse]

@JonB, @Jon Double Nice

Aircraft noise is normally measured in decibels by the techie types who do the research, then converted to phrases like "as loud as a pneumatic drill at fifteen paces during a hurricane" so the (mass, non-technical) media, politicians./+beancounters can "understand it" (even though most of them don't have a clue what a pnuematic drill at 15 paces in the middle of a huricane sounds like either - but it sounds as though they should).

I don't think Airwolf had a whisper mode, but Blue Thunder did. I think it is the only thing on there that didn't really fit in with their "every thing you see on this helicopter is already in service" guff... helmet-aimed weapons - check, spotlights capable of illuminating a suspect from several hundred feet - check, voice/systems recorders that kept track of everything the crew & heli did - check, fancy mikes and thermal imaging cameras capable of listening & watching through (thin, American) walls - check; whisper mode where you can hover outside a 1000ft skyscraper (presumably with double glazing!! - wonder why they couldn't hear the whiny little Astazou hanging outside their window..?) and spy on your local quasi-autonomous non-Governmental organisation preparing to tear down hundreds of years of civil freedoms and liberties - nope, that didn't seem to be around then.

But as anyone who watches 'Sky Cops' or similar programmes knows, the Boys (and Gals) in Blue can sit quite nicely several hundred feet up and still see you as clear as standing next to you...so you probably won't hear them anyway. So behave nicely to your fellow citizens and you should have little to fear...

Black helicopter? What else?

[Anonymous Coward]

Whsiper mode

<pedant>

It was Blue Thunder, not Airwolf

</pedant>

[Andrew Tyler]

Mountains...

As I understand it, from watching overly dramatic mountain climbing documentaries, that you can't do helicopter rescues from way up there because of atmospheric pressure and whatnot. Might an aircraft like this with a service ceiling of 30,000 feet be able to get the job done, theoretically anyways? Mt. Everest, for instance, is a thousand feet shy of that at its peak. I do imagine that most people need rescuing in bad, non-helicopter friendly weather though.

However, if it saves me having to watch another documentary about some guy who is a "hero" because he decided to climb Mt. Everest and then couldn't hack it and his toes fell off, that would be entirely worthwhile. You also wouldn't be risking the lives of rescue personnel, which is nice--you know, the actual hero types.

[gizmo23]

Whisper Mode

I thought Whisper Mode was from Blue Thunder.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085255/

Ob. Blue helicopter... ok well black then.

[Anonymous Coward]

Arrgh we're all doomed, doomed I tell ye.

I wonder if it will be used in Jesus Land to keep us under surveilence when semidemigod Jesus and Jehoover and Pharther Exemas want to go on holiday - for their annual christian bonding session with Mary in the garden behind Joe's place?

Whisper mode in DB of Decibels - well sound is measured LOG (my spelling brane is not working) Sound is measured in DB - decibel, and ummmmm that is logarithmic, not linear...

In dumb arse terms - all things considered equal; a 200W RMS amp feeding a speaker is only 1/2 as loud again as a 100W RMS amplifier. which is only 1/2 as loud again as a 50W RMS amplifier...

Draw a simple table Power on on scale, volume on the other... then graph it out... with little dots.

You will understand.