The Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, has proven a formidable weapon for the U.S. military, quietly lurking in the sky and then zipping in to loose a missile on enemy targets. Its effectiveness raises an important question: When will I have a robotic plane of my own buzzing about that I might summon down to teach a lesson to some of the many deeply annoying people who cross my path? A mild Taser zap or even just a spitball would be fine.
I’m very likely out of luck on this score, due to the bizarre fact that neither Taser zaps nor spitballs share the constitutional protection afforded bullets. So I’ll just have to find other ways to make use of the tiny airborne drone that will almost certainly be at my beck and call in the not-too-distant future.
In fact, I’m tempted to head over to a Brookstone right now and pick up a Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter—a $300, four-rotored, self-stabilizing microaircraft with two video cameras that I can send 150 feet up and down my street to hover outside homes and put my neighbors on notice that their transgressions will no longer go unrecorded. That could keep me occupied until I can afford the more sophisticated $10,000 swinglet cam by senseFly, which can fly 10 miles, or the $20,000 Draganflyer X4-P, which can carry a 1.5-pound payload—usually a high-end camera—for about 15 minutes.
