Autogyro lands on Capital grass

Opened the Washington Post this morning, there is an autogyro on the front page. I love it. The mail carrier paint/stickers really class it up. Even carried letters for congress with correct postage. I have no issues with this guy and his message at all.

Now Feds will use this to continue to justify the ADIZ 30mile radius around DC, that makes recreational flying in the area difficult. Even though this shows the ADIZ not very useful as a deterrent.

 

What was his message?

Guy was such a loon not sure a coherent message was to be had.

Not a great way to get point across, unless your point is to see how bad the SS can F up your life.

 

Previous demonstration of autogyro mail delivery in 1938.
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Another one flown by Senator Hiram Bingham.

Yes, he is a nut, because he'll probably spend a few years in jail like the farmer who put his tractor in the reflecting pool. But, it looks like he was reasonable careful not to hurt anyone, and SS is mostly a fixed cost, so he didn't cost me anything. As far as nuts go, this ones fine with me.
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Wanted to get money out of politics. Apparently he had to declare bankruptcy due to USDA loan ? in 2011 so had a bit of a bone to pick with the feds. Son committed suicide some 3 years ago.

Most, but not all explained here:

The Democracy Club | Because "We the People" own Congress!

A new perspective on "going postal".

 

Sorry he screwed up his life but his first mistake was to count on government for anything more than an annual tax bill.

Well, one thing for sure. He won't be doing any of this again.

 

Amazing and unsettling that he was able to actually able to carry this out. He took an hour long route, anticipated an intercept and possibly getting killed doing this but he makes it all the way unscathed. Am I overthinking that a terrorist plot similar to one in "Olympus has Fallen" is plausible due to lack of immediate & close poximity defenses of the WH & etc?

 

Isn't that the whole reason the North Koreans hijacked the "missing" Malaysian airliner?

 

Have you ever seen a gyrocopter? It's not much different from a flying scooter.

 

How fast does something like that fly? Kinda makes me wonder if it's so slow and low that radars filtered it out.

 

Not much of a radar signature on something that small, especially if the fuselage is fiberglass or some other type of composite. The MTI filters were probably set above the speed he was flying, so none of the data was likely even processed. Set them too low, and you end up with all kinds of garbage on the scope.

You cannot defend against everything. Price would be exorbitant. There was a reason we flew low levels in fighters. Ground clutter gets to even MTIs unless you are looking down.

 

According to the guys who still sell the plans, cruise is 65mph. Of course, you can go a lot slower if you want to.

Bensen Gyro-copters and Gyro-gliders

There is so little structure to the thing that it's really like a flying motorcycle. Hard to imagine you could pick up much on radar at best.

The good news, though, is that it carries so little other than it's pilot that I can't imagine how you could do much damage or destruction with one, no matter what you carried.

 

Would have loved to see a couple Vipers blow him out of the sky. Sounds savage, but we're broadcasting to the world how easy it is to penetrate some of the most restrictive airspace on the planet. This could have been very bad.

 

He's a postal worker. I doubt if they can fire him, although he might be looking at a transfer from Florida to Minnesota soon...

 

An F-16 might not be able to do it, there probably isn't even close to enough thermal for an IR guided missile. A radar guided missile would be even less workable. Best bet would be with the gun but even that would likely be far more dangerous to people on the ground than the gyrocopter itself. I remember a story from post Gulf War I about a U.S. fighter that took out an Iraqi helicopter violating the no fly zone with a laser guided bomb which worked out well, but not practical in downtown D.C. My guess is that Air Force One would have an easier time taking this guy out than any fighter. Just make a low slow pass over the top of him and let wake turbulence do its thing.

A helicopter would be the most appropriate option for an intercept. For stopping him close in there are lots of rumors about Phalanx style CIWS like is used on ships and to shoot down mortars in Iraq and Afghanistan being mounted on the White House. The problem is again that there would likely be significant damage and casualties as the rounds impact other buildings in the area.

 

Heck he's got a flying tricycle. just throw a cargo net over him from a tree would sort it..

 

Mark- That was an F15E during Desert Storm. They were targeting a helicopter sitting on the ground when it took off just before the GBU-24 LLLGB arrived. They were credited with an aerial victory. There was not much left of the copter after the Mk84 warhead (2000 lbs of which 990 lbs or so was tritonal) went off. The LANTIRN video made confirmation pretty easy. Even if the GBU-24 had dudded, they would have killed the chopper.

There was an incident post-war, where two UN helicopters were shot down by F15Cs, but that is not something anybody brags about.

 

I agree...shooting something this small would be overkill. Just fire off a huge net at the rotor whether it be made of rope or metal wire...

 

The next guy to try it is going to be hit by a missile for sure. Don't tell me some lunatic terrorist didn't see this and get an idea.

I often wondered about a terrorist in a gyro copter and a bomb flying into a football stadium. Drop down some dynamite sticks. The crowd rushing out in panic would kill hundreds. You can't protect everything and how would anyone stop you? It's a terrible thing to think of but it's certainly possible. Who would have thought of pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon?

To me, this guy did our government a favor. It showed a weakness. The question is, will there be copycats now looking to take it the next step.

 

Apparently his son committed suicide in 2012 by crashing into an oncoming car. The article in the paper did not connect the dots as to why he flew up to dc exactly, but that's it in a nutshell. The Orlando Sentinel sucks.

Orlando Sentinel

 

That's exactly what I thought when the story broke. Govt. failure all the way around and to add insult to injury, he told the govt. he was going to fly his gyro and land on the lawn. And they did nothing.

Security breakdowns all the way down the line. Can you imagine the rear-end chewings going on right now over this behind closed doors?

 

I'd like to think that is true but it seems no one in government is embarrassed about lying and poor performance anymore and it is unusual to the extreme when they are actually held accountable.

 

Nothing anybody could have done. Shooting a Stinger at him at that low of an altitude would have caused a lot of collateral damage plus whatever damage the gyrocopter would have done when it crashed and exploded. Assuming you even knew it was coming, which they did not.

For you outraged civilians, the military does not really have a capability against this type of aircraft in an urban setting. Do you want to spend your taxpayer money band-aiding something together to combat the gyrocopter threat? Should we have trained Stinger operators on 24 hour duty covering all possible ingress routes?

Who do you want to blame for this "failure"? Get a grip.

 

In Lincolns day you could walk in and ask to see the President. It actually happened from time to time. To see how far security has come is in some ways a little too Orwellian already. I'd be OK if they could just keep fence climbers from having the run of the White House. Can't have 100% security.

 

i wrote about our trip to see the White House when we were entertaining some British pilots. Mom knew the Secret Service guy that arranged it. We DROVE UP TO THE FRONT DOOR where we were met and guided through everything that was available on the first floor. That day was December 6th, 1941.