Weird, Birdlike Mystery Drone Crashes in Pakistan

Weird, Birdlike Mystery Drone Crashes in Pakistan

www.wired.com

The Pakistani Frontier Corps in Baluchistan province recovered the drone. And they confidently declare it to be an “American surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle.” But as WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson points out, it doesn’t look like anything the U.S. flies — or at least acknowledges flying. What’s the deal?

(visit the link for the full news article)

also from the Wired article

WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson flags pictures of an unusual, unfamiliar drone that reportedly crashed crashed over southwestern Pakistan late last week. It’s a surveillance drone, with a camera attached — recovered from the crash but not apparently visible in this photo — rather than the larger, deathly flying robots that shoot missiles. This one looks tiny, with a wingspan not much longer than a man’s outstretched arms, and clearly light enough for a grown man to carry.

Check out the SmartBird, a drone designed by the engineers at Festo and modeled explicitly on the herring gull:

It’s clearly not the same drone, as the wings are obviously different: the mystery drone’s wings are straighter and more sharply angled than the SmartBird’s sleeker, more rounded wings, which mimic those of the gull. Judging from the light of the second picture, the SmartBird’s wings — which flap to enable autonomous flight — are made of more than one type of material, which doesn’t appear to be the case with the downed drone. What’s more, the downed drone’s wings have ailerons and its nose kinda-sorta looks like it hosted a propeller, two features the SmartBird lacks.

Birds with cameras in them ? its a genius idea but who does it belong to? Im betting on the CIA myself.

Just what was it spying on?

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Does that say Pesto on the bottom of the wing?

A quick Google search using "Pesto inc" turned up this page.

Pesto Inc. Defense contracts won

Can't vouch for the site though, and not much else to be found for Pesto Inc...

will keep looking

reply to post by ACitizen


The second "Festo" picture isnt a picture of the drone that crashed. It just something they are comparing the crashed drone to.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


looks like the uav that the police use from tracking drug deals / dealers. cheap light and disposable, looks something like a larger version of the desert hawk

Wee Mad

The contours on the wings are different, but it does have other similarities.

There is obviously a state of distrust between the U.S and Pakistan. Drones are flying over there on a regular occurance.

Nice find!!

Another article on it with a different pic of the drone is at link below...

US surveillance drone crashes in Pakistan

There are all kinds of small, hand launched drones in use now..

Marine Special Operators Rely Heavily on Hand-Launched Drones

Of course, if we have them other countries likely have them too. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if even companies like Xe weren't flying a few around over there..

i doubt they trust them as far as they can throw them, there is another UAV being taken on by the American Mil. they take on different UAV's depending on the need, the pigeon, it will have a military designation some where can been seen below.

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Wee Mad

reply to post by ACitizen


Actually, it says "Festo".
This design is known: www.festo.com...
It says on the site that it is inspired by the herring gull.

I don't think they are the same model/design or even made by the same people.
Looks similar, though.


Hard to say more so far.

Peace

I think it's Festo, rather than Pesto. They've developed a remote control bird. As shown in this video & the page from their site. I knew that someone was developing a remote control bird based on the peregrine falcon, for use in bird control. So I suppose it was inevitable that the technology eventually be developed for military use. www.festo.com...

www.festo.com...


www.youtube.com...

Removed

I've been flying R/C electrics for over 20 years and that looks to be what we call a "foamie"- a homemade R/C plane made out of sheet foam. Its small size tells me that it's a hobby-grade flyer and most definitely not a UAV. That appears to have an electric motor and you could get a battery pack in fuselage of that size that MIGHT get you up to an hour of flight time, but UAVs require many hours of flight time and thus are typically powered by aviation fuel just like full-size aircraft. They are also built out of composites, not cheap foam. It is not uncommon for a hobbyist to experience a "fly away" in which he loses radio contact with his aircraft or loses visual line-of-sight, such as can happen if a plane gets caught up a big thermal. I imagine that's what happened here. The real owner is likely a local and is probably scared to death to claim it now that he sees it on the news being trumpeted as some kind of spy craft!

By the way, regarding on-board cameras, I do not see one in the picture but even if it did have one and it's been removed this is actually quite a common sight in hobby grade R/C planes. R/C Groups has an entire very active forum titled "Aerial Photography".

EDIT to add- just in case people are wondering if R/C is a uniquely American hobby, it isn't. There are many active R/C hobbyists in virtually every country in the world including throughout the Middle East.

EDIT #2: More pics here: diydrones.com... It appears to have the number "140" stenciled on the underside of the tail which does not seem like something a hobbyist would do. That's the one thing about it that stands out as odd, otherwise it looks like other homemade planes I've seen. The 4 holes in the bottom of the fuse are for battery cooling.

Originally posted by Tiercel
They've developed a remote control bird. As shown in this video & the page from their site. I knew that someone was developing a remote control bird based on the peregrine falcon, for use in bird control. So I suppose it was inevitable that the technology eventually be developed for military use.

That in the video is an ornithopter, I have several myself. This is not what's pictured in the OP though. Ornithopters fly via flapping wings, the aircraft in the OP is shaped like a bird but is in fact a fixed wing aircraft. I've logged many hours flying ornis and they'd be worthless for military use, they are very fussy to fly and are prone to mechanical breakdowns due to the excessive number of moving parts.

Originally posted by Frogs
There are all kinds of small, hand launched drones in use now..

Quite right, but again, the difference is that these are high quality composite construction (military spec), not the cheap foam construction of the plane in the OP. And those are used for short flights where they need to peek around an obstruction. IE, if they're pushing a front line and can't see over a ridge or something, they'll send one of these small birds up and fly it over the ridge to see what's there. It's not something that they'd fly cross- country, and it's not "unmanned" in the traditional sense because the pilot has to maintain a line of vision to the plane while it's flying (the pilot watches the plane while another person watches the POV from the camera).

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Is that a tiny little cockpit for a tiny little pilot in the photo?

What's up with that?

Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who has studied the use of drones in war, estimates there are roughly 7,000 unmanned systems (PDF) currently in use by the military, "ranging from 48-foot-long Predators to micro-aerial vehicles that a single soldier can carry in their backpack.

link at cfr.org

WASP III

not the same, but proves how much types there are flying up there....

Somebody decided to 'drone' the 'droners'....

Second line.

Originally posted by centurion1211
reply to post by PhoenixOD

 

Is that a tiny little cockpit for a tiny little pilot in the photo?

What's up with that?

Thats actually the camera location... However, the article states that the camera is not being shown in the picture...

looks like that wooden bird found in the Egyptian tomb. you know the one the ancient astronaut show drools over?

reply to post by OUNjahhryn


I was thinking that to. The tail is very similar.