Codebreaker

Exploding remote control cars!

John Moe Sep 7, 2011

No, not for Christmas. Dang it, we never get to have any fun. These have emerged from a contest held by the Air Force. An open call for a device that could catch speeding bad guys without destroying them led a retired engineer from Lima, Peru to submit an entry for a 130mph remote control car that could catch up to a speeding vehicle, deploy massive airbags, and disable the alleged perp.

Here’s the description as released by the White House(?!):

The solution consists of a remote electric-powered vehicle that can accelerate up to 130 MPH within 3 seconds, position itself under a fleeing car, then automatically trigger a restrained airbag to lift the car and slide it to a stop. This design overcomes the previous restrictions of having to preposition the system. It is almost universally applicable to multiple scenarios and it is very affordable. AFRL has assigned a team and allocated funding to build and test a prototype based on Barbis’s detailed design. If the system passes all the operational testing, the prototype will be demonstrated to the USAF Security Forces and the design will be transitioned for operational use.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.