Fire control system integration
Will it come with a powered turret and IoT so I can roof mount it and bring down drones from my phone? If not, it isn't sufficiently future proof.
As the world's skies darken with drones, a British firm reckons it's come up with the ultimate solution to the UAV flying menace: the mighty SkyWall100 handheld net-firing cannon. According to OpenWorks Engineering, SkyWall is "a combination of a compressed gas powered smart launcher and an intelligent programmable projectile …
But when we say 'drone' are we talking about Reapers, as the size of that thing would suggest it is intended to target, or are we talking about a palm-sized, iPhone-controlled drone that's hovering slightly over the wall of Number 10 Downing Street trying to catch pictures of Samantha Cameron in the bath?
If you generate more than 12lbs per square inch
The muzzle on this is HUGE. There is no way in hell the puny compressed air tank attached to it can generate 12lbs per square inch (approx 1 bar) across an area with a diameter of a shoulder launched missile and more than a meter and a half in length So as far as the current regs go (and are literally interpreted) this is most likely an "airsoft"
£100 to take out a £10 drone that could assuming people are stupid cause a £100 million plane wreck. All we need is one nutter hitting a BA flight and suddenly £100 is a deal killer.
Still I do prefer the Netherlands idea of eagles in airports on patrol.
I like the idea of the cannon, perimeter mounted turrets with kill zones. Not so sure on the uniform. I can see a H&S yellow hi-vis jobs worth instead of spec ops or worse Ryan air sponsored simpletons thinking they are important.
The problem with the eagle idea is that several actual experts on bird of prey have come forward to say that it is a monumentally stupid idea and these birds are completely unsuited for this job as they become frustrated when they can't actually catch a drone every now and then. (And could go after anything else that moves.)
"Not so sure on the uniform. I can see a H&S yellow hi-vis jobs worth instead of spec ops or worse Ryan air sponsored simpletons thinking they are important."
I wonder if the cool yellow anti-flash protective glasses favoured by Health & Safety managed shooters are included or necessary?
It would most likely fall under a the definition of a prohibited firearm, under the same category as any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing.
Or one of the many other prohibited categories.
100m doesn't seem a particularly useful range though :\
It may be out of date, but I think the firearms definition is pretty specific. I used to sell "boat bits" and most flare guns didn't require a firearms licence but we sold one which did, that had a percussion cap mechanism.
Then there's the gas gun laws (paint ball etc) which is specifically mentioned in the firearms definition, that has a pounds per square inch definition, I believe. Which might be why this doesn't have such a great range.
An air rifle max is 12 ft/Ib and this thing must be a lot more powerful than that to chuck that projectile for that distance. It's a chunky thing to start with, then the net comes out and becomes a low energy / high drag projectile so to get it to fly another 50 metres I would guess would need to quadruple the power. If the projectile is smart and delays opening until it is close to the target then it might go a bit further.
I can't remember what happens to single action air weapons over the poundage limit. Straight prohibited I think.
I know from the low tier (airsoft stuff) if it's over the power limit it becomes a high power air rifle (if it's single action) or a section 5 firearm if it's automatic.
Re the ball launcher thing, that's different as I believe there are exceptions for certain types of projectile (and more than likely a power limit though I'm not certain on that one).
The same applies to the flare gun, it doesn't have to be explosive powered to qualify as a firearm (see the previous Airsoft example). I think it's probably the fact it uses percussion caps (which would be ammunition) which require the license, which is why it's different to the others.
IANAL...
"... single action air weapons over the poundage limit."
If I remember, they needed a firearms license and were only intended for people who killed 'vermin' in a professional capacity. The law may have changed since I Iast had an air rifle.
The thing about the energy limit (13 ft.lb as I remember) was that it was formulated according to how much range/damage-potential it could give to an air gun pellet. This thing would/should have totally different considerations as to how much damage it could cause if misused.
12 foot-pounds for rifles, 6 for pistols, and apocryphally, that restriction was brought in to protect our existing airgun manufacturers from the effects of all those people wanting to import better and more powerful/efficient German-made ones, back in the early to mid eighteen hundreds.
(He says, unable to actually confirm that through google at the time of writing...)
"It would most likely fall under a the definition of a prohibited firearm, under the same category as any weapon of whatever description designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing."
Eh, no more so than one of these.
One presumes these will not be mail-order and the company will sell it along with training to genuine buyers, in which case the Police would be unlikely to take too great an interest.
The parachute seems like it would just add to the risk of the entrapped drone floating with the wind - potentially across the runway and towards aircraft awaiting clearance to go (with their engines spinning). On a windy airfield, there seems to be a lot of scope for it to drift some way from it's actual snaring point.
Surely better to dispense with the 'chute and let it fall out of the sky like a brick - presumably the owner isn't getting it back so it's final "landed" condition is not relevant?
It's generally frowned upon to design something that'll make something drop out of the sky like a brick, possible overhead of people. If this thing is used at an airfield traffic will have been shut down and/or diverted. If it's THAT close to a waiting aircraft there is a good chance it wouldn't be used in the first place as a miss would then lead to a net and projectile flying into said aircraft.
Even with the chute the drone drops fairly rapidly so it shouldn't be much of an issue.
100m of range seems rather irrelevant to me. Who gives a crap about drones at 100m until they are practically over a runway? It is those 500-2000ft ones that really need to be shot down. Police marksman in a helicopter time? Or a really big drone capable of carrying this thing?
I can see the police wanting to use this to bag a perp on the ground though...