Model plane flown across the Atlantic

Once again proving the RC enthusiasts are not to be trusted :-)

snipped-for-privacy@aol.comspamless (The Old Timer) wrote in :

Well, I'd think recent experience has shown that to bring down a building, you need an airliner. Remember the Cessna that was flown into a building? It went SPLAT on the building's facade, doing superficial damage only.

RC aircraft would do even less damage, and they'd be hard to target accurately (you need to aim at a window to get into the building).

The only place where a 'poor man's cruise missile' would make sense is when the target is defended adequately against car bombs and other traditional terrorist attack vectors. The few targets that are, are also likely to have air defences (military targets) or be impervious (nuclear powerplants).

One of those baloons worked out well enough to kill some school kids in Oregon. Scott There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Mental Illness."

Along with their teacher. Several forest fires were started by those balloons. They carried incendiaries, not land mines.

RC model plane attack was used on an episode of The Avengers, as well.

Tom

There was also an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." that had a bad guy (from Smersh?) flying an RC plane packed with explosives around NYC.

John Hairell ( snipped-for-privacy@erols.com)

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m13.aol.com, Maiesm72 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 08/14/03 10:37 AM:

Not entirely true. No land mines were carried but two types of incendiary devices and one type of high-explosive bomb were carried as the main payload of the balloons. The type 92 anti-personnel bomb weighed in at about 33 pounds.

The casualties were caused by a balloon bomb in May of 1945, about 65 miles northeast of Klamath Falls, Oregon. The Reverend and Mrs. Archie Mitchell of Bly, Oregon, took six children on an outing. Mrs. Mitchell and the children found the bomb and apparently tried to move it when it exploded. Rev. Mitchell was in the process of moving the car when the bomb was found and his warnings to leave it alone were too late. The incendiaries did not ignite but the AP bomb did. These were the only known fatalities on the U.S. mainland caused by an enemy attack during the war.

If you want to know more about the Japanese balloon bomb program, Bob Mikesh did a nice little soft cover book for the Smithsonian Annals of Flight Series (Number 9). It's probably OOP but you can check with the Smithsonian Institution Press.

in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, John Hairell at snipped-for-privacy@erols.com wrote on 08/14/03 10:46 AM:

All this reminds me of a plan the U.S. military played with during WWII. Someone reasoned that since so many Japanese structures were made of wood and paper, a bat carrying a small incendiary device could start a large fire. So, a plan was devised to "outfit" an army of "bats", each wearing a harness to which was attached a small incendiary bomb. These were to be released from the air over Japanese cities and the Kamikaze bats would do their thing.

It worked too...sort of. An armed bat escaped during "training" and burned down a hangar.

MB

Scott -- I saw your sig in the comic strip "Pickles" yesterday.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

Some bloody spy, probably...

I've never trusted bats either.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity)

Obviously written by fans of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." rather than real reporters.

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m10.aol.com, DBatt56523 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 08/15/03 4:16 AM:

They are now working for Fox.

MB

Would that be all of the "papers" at the grocery store checkout stand? :-)

My favorite tabloid story of all time was the "Bomber Found on the Moon!!!" story. Complete with a photograph of a B-32 in a lunar crater.

Tom

No, it was the (then) Buffalo Evening News, now known as the Buffalo News, owned by Rubert Murdoch. That story wasn't in the tab's. I never heard about any planted explosive, probably because British authorities didn't want to admit their security was so lax that a terrorist could get ~anywhere~ near Mountbatten's boat. That's why an RC with 2 lbs. of C4 made sense to me. I did faniliarization training with that stuff in the Marines, I've ~seen~ what it can do.

I liked that one too. Did you ever notice that when a popular movie comes out, they do a few stories of a similar nature and use stills from the movie as basis for reality. They make for great entertainment reading, usually when I am visiting the porcelain lounge.

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger

Wow! I think I started that thread. Still kicking huh.

WmB

To reply, get the HECK out of there snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

There was a story going around (and I'm sorry if I don't recall the exacts, as you say, it's been a long time) that somebody saw an RC model airplane flying around moments before the explosion. Put two and two together and get twenty-seven. The assumption was that the model had a small block of C-4 in it to cause the explosion. Thanks for the correction.

But what took you so long?

-- John ___ __[xxx]__ (o - ) --------o00o--(_)--o00o-------

The history of things that didn't happen has never been written - Henry Kissinger