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3D Robotics

Is this for real?

Posted by Chris Anderson on July 14, 2008 at 9:30pm

Spotted in the current issue of Unmanned Systems, the AUVSI magazine: an ad for a sniper rifle/quadcopter UAV (shown above). Absurdly, it says you can take off the rotors and camera and also use the fuselage as an assault rifle! If this were the April edition, I'd think it was an April Fool's joke. The ad is full of typos and the company, AUS International, has a one-page website that looks like it was made in Microsoft Word in about ten minutes. There is no other information about them on the web, and whois says the company website was just registered in April of this year. Apparently they're based in Laredo TX, assuming that they're a real company at all.

What do you think? Is this for real?

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Comments

  • Patrick Egan August 6, 2008 at 8:46pm
    Did you happen to ask if the C&C was windows based?
  • Jack Crossfire August 6, 2008 at 7:54pm
    The Chinese really have flying bridges.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson August 6, 2008 at 6:21pm
    As I commented on William's site:

    William wrote: “So, there you have it. The AirSniper is real - all of you naysayers can be silenced. ”

    Wow. So that’s all it takes to convince you? The guy from the company says “No, it really is real!” and you say “Good enough for me!”.

    Until they deliver the goods–flying, shooting and all the rest–in a forum where it can be inspected I’m calling BS on this one.

    In the meantime, I’ve got a flying bridge (no, really!) that I’d love to sell you ;-)
  • William Cox August 6, 2008 at 6:10pm
    So, since everyone thought this project was a fake, I decided to contact the company. It turns out that it's a real product! Check out what the Director of Technology said the AirSniper about it here.
  • Patrick Egan July 15, 2008 at 5:52pm
    I'll take 3, the check is in the mail!
  • Longshot7601 July 15, 2008 at 5:24pm
    Any body want to buy one of my yet unreleased UAV products? Our company (me) has successfully flown a prototype (chuck glider). We have not released any information on this design for security reasons (emotional security, I don't want to be laughed at). Please send Cashier's Check or Money Order made out to C.A.S.H.

    Thank You
    Anonymous (With held for security reason too.)
    President
    Consolidated Autonomous Security Helicopters
    PO Box 5100251
    Las Vegas, NV 89123

    Website to follow.
  • T3
    Rory Paul July 15, 2008 at 4:46pm
    There are a lot of con artists out there I was almost taken by a company called Remote-I (Rhandal Sayat) a few years back. I must say though his website at least had better stolen graphics. There is another "company" I have even seen advertised on the Google adds here www.marcusuav.com who I saw lifted content from MicroPilot (gone already but it was trhere for a while) and if you dug a bit is registered out of a UPS location in Seattle?
    marcusuav.com
    This domain may be for sale!
  • 100KM
    crystal garris July 15, 2008 at 11:31am
    i am afraid that this type of business plane is a wide spreed and disturbing trend . i can point to more then a few " businesess " that right now are trying to push uavs ect that havnt even flown yet .
  • Longshot7601 July 15, 2008 at 11:23am
    Even if it were a real project. I have yet to see ANY hovering platform stable enough for sniper duties much less a small one like this. Maybe if you isolate the weapon from the airframe and then stabilize it with a gyro. But this doesn't seem to be the case.
  • paul hubner July 15, 2008 at 11:11am
    Definitley 'shopped!
This reply was deleted.