EagleRJ
Are we there yet?
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2001
- Posts
- 1,490
If anyone saw the CBS evening news tonight, they had a pretty funny piece on the Velocity, the four-place composite kitplane. They talked about a drug kingpin in Central America who has a small fleet of the planes to run drugs into Mexico and the southern US, since they are harder to spot on radar. The reporter noted how even patrolling AWACS couldn't spot the Velocity on radar, and made vague references to the usefulness of the aircraft to terrorists. The last line of the story was something like, "Even the most high-tech radar will be incomplete, until it can detect a piece of fiberglass built in someone's garage". I suppose it would be a waste of time to explain to the media that the radar on the AWACS is tuned to detect much tougher targets, like stealthy cruise missiles flying at 400kts and 100' AGL, and wouldn't have a problem with the metal componants in the Velocity. The engine block alone probably has a much larger RCS than a cruise missile. Hopefully the AOPA, EAA, and other advocacy groups are on this one before some misinformed politician proposes legeslation we don't need.