back to article Battlefield skyhook robocopter 'passes US Marines' test'

The deadline for makers to bring forward unmanned skyhook robocopters - intended to move battlefield supplies in Afghanistan as soon as this year - is upon us, and one team at least is claiming a successful demonstration. The Kaman K-MAX intermesh rotor helicopter. Credit: Kaman Now available without that heavy, expensive, …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    manual control by the ground operator

    So why is there someone sitting in it?

    Is that person optional cargo or was the correct stock-photo image just not available :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Dead Vulture

      what???

      Can't you see the Robot piloting the copter? whats up with you?

    2. Colin Miller
      FAIL

      @ice_cow

      Did you read the photo's caption?

      "Now available without that heavy, expensive, moaning pilot"

      Kinda suggests that unlike this helicopter, the new ones are unpiloted.

  2. cynic 2
    Black Helicopters

    Control

    I wonder if they've remembered to encrypt the control link this time?

    1. Ian Michael Gumby
      Joke

      Huh?

      When was the control link not encrypted?

      Oh wait. You must be confused by the fact that someone left the video link unencrypted.

      (Not that they could see the crosshairs or telemetry ...)

      I can imagine it now...

      "Hey Achmed, this is Abu. You know that Predator Drone thing we hacked in to? ... Well its coming down your street. You may want to get out of your house ...."

  3. Phil P
    Flame

    So close ...

    Just a little jiggling of the title and ... "Immediate Cargo Aerial Robotic Unmanned System".

    (And anyone familiar with the story will understand the choice of icon)

    1. Graham Marsden
      Coat

      Or how about...

      Immediate Cargo Unmanned Supply System

      or iCUSS for short when they're going "Where's the *%#& supply chopper?"

  4. OMGeek
    Terminator

    Obvious punnery.

    Quite the "Rise" of the Machines, no?

    Also, +1 vote to add "punnery" to the Reg dictionary.

  5. alyn

    Look at it closely

    It appears to have twin contra-rotating rotors, but they are very closely spaced. How does that work? They must crash into each other.

    1. Alan Esworthy
      Boffin

      Clearly they must not

      Meditate on the egg beater and you shall be enlightened

    2. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Well since it's actually flying

      It must not. This is pretty much Kaman's trademark design, kind of like Harleys are aircooled V-twins and Apple stuff is expensive.

    3. Rob 30
      WTF?

      @alyn

      bit pedantic of me maybe, but if they must crash into each other, how do you reckon it gets up into the air?

    4. tfewster
      Black Helicopters

      Good question

      It looks like each rotor is mounted at an angle (and V-shaped?) to pass over the mounting of the other rotor. Synchronise the 2nd rotor and you're (up, up and) away

      @ Gene Cash & Rob 30 - Photoshop? :-)

  6. Rob 30
    WTF?

    @alyn

    bit pedantic of me maybe, but there's no need for egg beaters.. if they must crash into each other, how do you reckon it gets up into the air?

  7. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    @alyn

    Um, intermeshing contra-rotating rotors are kind of Kamen's specialty. The contra-rotation eliminates the need for a tail rotor (and has done since the 1950's IIRC).

    Their rotors also tend to have a flap on the trainling edge of their blades, which is quite unusual (AFAIK). I'd hear d of this basic design some time ago when they were touting it as a helicopter for logging operations, with no cabin, just a pilots cockpit and rotors and bearings designed for no replacement during the life of the vehicle.

  8. Crazy Operations Guy
    Joke

    That pictue proves my theory

    That helicopter do not actually fly, the earth just repels them due to their ugliness.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    next stop, 777

    can you image getting a job sitting in a custom chair and monitoring the flight of every plane landing at JFK?

    I can.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Colours?

    I don't think they thought out the camoflage design too well on the whirly bird though....

  11. Allan George Dyer

    Is it good at avoiding ground attacks?

    Might be a new tactic for insurgents:

    1. Wait for robo-copter to fly past

    2. Shoot down robo-copter

    3. Collect valuable cargo from mountainside

    4. Profit^H^H^H^H^H Use supplies against now-unsupplied grunts

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