It could happen here, had an episode that talked about drone use in the middle east. They interviewed people that talked about how horrifying it was to hear that high pitched whine. I get that drones are having a moment, but that moments been going on for quite a while. It's also not going anywhere anytime soon. There's going to be countermeasures to the countermeasures.

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Furthermore the drone swarm technology demonstrated PUBLICLY through DARPA then seemingly disappearing is terrifying.

[–] Railing5132@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Shit, Michael Reeves made a drone swarm publicly on YouTube, what, 10 years ago?

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm almost afraid to bring it up; but there's a drone system being/was being used in Africa to deliver medications and whatnot that use blades designed after Owl wings that make almost no sound. It just sounds like a small gust of wind.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is that those helical rotors? They're supposed to be quite good in many ways, not just the noise.

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

~~I don't think so. IIRC it was more about the shape of the blade and that there was only one of them on each rotor with a weight built in to balance it out. With one rotor turbulence is negligible while still providing lift.~~

Here's a video about Owl wings.

Here's ~~the~~ another video about the rotors:

https://iv.melmac.space/watch?v=z58RORCUTao

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Incredible stuff! The sound is so buttery. People who understand harmonics and sound engineering amaze me. I'd love to build a quadcopter that sounds like this.

Pretty slick invidious links there too, last time I used that it wasn't a very good experience, glad it's come this far.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

In Ukraine, they're using stock commercial drones. Not even bothering to harden them against EW. It shortens their range significantly, but they're still lauded as "better than artillery".

Hobbyists recently built a custom drone that was able to chase a formula one car around a track and beat it on a straightaway.

The countermeasures will need to be pretty impressive, is all I'm saying.