Iranian Hobbyist Asks For UAV Help
Posted on May 9, 2009 by aaronredbaron
As I develop my own UAS (unmanned aerial system) and look into ways to share my experience with you the reader, I am faced with one of the little side effects of the Internet. Anything I publish here is available for the whole world to see, including people who may have malicious intentions. I was browsing RCGroups UAV forum when a post caught my attention. A (claimed) hobbyist from Iran wanted help developing his UAV ideas, and posted a link to his blog where he talked about his “unfixed wing UAV.” I can’t read Farsi, but pictures of a missile being launched are posted on the page. The “Unfixed wing UAV” is not pictured on the front page of the blog anymore, and it is important to note the pictures of the missile are not the topic of the RC Groups discussion.
I have been working on an article for you, my readers, about my new Twinstar FPV (first person video) plane, and I still intend to highlight my experiences, but this thread opened my eyes a bit. Its not as if I have developed anything ground breaking, and its not likely the information I might post here could be the key element someone needs to complete some evil deed. But it has added layer of caution to what I am willing to publish, and got me thinking about some of the possible applications these systems could be used for. Maybe I am being overly cautious, but the idea that evil doers control systems could be helped along by western civilization’s own Internet community, gives me the heeby jeebies! US citizens are prohibited from helping anyone in Iran with a project that might or might not be used for military purposes, but chances are this hobbyist from Iran just wants to do some FPV flying himself and is no different than you or I.
In a blog post on Longtail.com, author Chris Anderson raised this topic and got a response back from the Iranian Hobbiest who posted in RCGroups. The discusion is very interesting and truly proves how close this community is.
