In honor of the recent Patriot scrap scare, I give you...homebrew cruise missiles!

Over on the thread about the Patriot in the junk yard, some of the posters were discussing cruise missiles, and it reminded me of this.

There are a couple of us that are dedicated 'practical jokers' and we tend to look for projects that will cause, let's say 'consternation' to be kind. The fun part is, we can come closer to pulling it off than most. That's generally where the other guys will rein us in. I got a wild hair to do this very thing last year - I guess it's better we didn't, given the level of poo this caused.

The website has many twists and turns with lots and LOTS of fun material in it, I encourage you to wander and see what you can find. Somewhere in there is a video clip of a news program where they covered the story - the US Government apparently stepped in and got the NZ gubmint to shut the guy down. He got some high level attention too.

Anyway, could you do it? YES, yes, you could, although you'd have to be a pretty good designer to get the guidance system worked out. We had sketched up something a bit more elaborate than this, but the guy's pulse combustion engine would do if you could keep it from shaking the airframe and electronics to pieces. We were looking at purchasing some used but serviceable turbine engines to power ours, you can get little ones just the right size.

Here's one that's intended to be an APU, but we were pretty sure with some tinkering you could dismount the generator and either get it to turn a ducted fan or use the exhaust for thrust or both. There is a group of turbine engine aficionados out there doing all sorts of fun projects that led us to believe you could most likely rig one for thrust. Here's an example, although there are lots of others. You can also just buy one off the shelf but that's cheating.

Anyways, I give you...the homebrew cruise missile!

edit: thanks, I hadn't looked at this in months and had misremembered the guy as being Australian

[edit on 23-7-2007 by Tom Bedlam]

I was following that project untill the NZ government shut him down. I donate some time at a local aircraft museum and occasionally go to aircraft salvage yards in search of parts. I have seen missile components, Apollo capsules and various other types of military hardware just sitting there waiting for someone to buy them.

I already have a good payload delivery system.
Nap of the earth capability so stays under the radar with a GPS navigation system providing pinpoint accuracy and a range of about 550 miles. It requires a human interface to actually deliver to the target with maybe a couple stops for a pee and a cup of coffee but it's cheap and stealthy

Yikes! "Bathtub" cruisers for under $5 Kilo-bucks?

Oh my, Tom B' that is a notion. Hello, Litton industries? Yeah, can I have permission to dig through your garbage... uh, I need an avionics system for a two-seater "winged horse" dresser my Missus' and I are working on in the garage. Free, you say? Pay me to take them away? Obsolete? No kidding? Yeah that's about my age and price range!

Cheers,

Vic

Originally posted by Britguy
I already have a good payload delivery system.

Ah, but it can only be used once.

What's the fun in that? We were rolling on the floor making up scenarios wherein we concocted a fake 'supervillain organization' to take credit for it all, and just do random stuff with them.

"The Order of the Crimson 7 will take vengeance once more! Free our brothers in Leavenworth, or we will destroy... the lateral drift trainer at Fort Benning!"

And of course, you don't tell them who the brothers are, because there aren't any. Part of the fun would be to be as confusing and unclear as you could manage.