Although it sure is cool. I’ve been holding on to one of these links for almost a year. The other link my dad just sent me. For all you Discovery Channel geeks out there, let’s start with the AA-12 fully automatic shot gun. “Future Weapons” covered it and talked about some of the really wild rounds they’ve developed for it, including a finned mini-grenade. Watch the video, then come back here for more.

AA-12 on Future Weapons – Clicky clicky

OK. So that’s pretty crazy. A low recoil, fully auto shot gun with a 32 round magazine. Add to that some really amazing, high-tech ammunition and you’ve got a nasty little weapon. What could possibly make it any scarier for the bad guys? How about if you could shoot it from an unmanned vehicle. Or even better, an unmanned flying vehicle.

The “Autocopter” is a remote controlled helicopter. If you know anything about RC choppers (or even real ones) you know that they are insanely hard to fly. It’s been compared to balancing a baseball bat vertically on your pinkie finger in a wind storm while someone is shooting at you. (OK, I’ve never actually heard it said that way before, but now you can say that you have.)

What makes the Autocopter different is that it’s controlled not by juggling a 2D stick, foot peddles and a throttle like a normal chopper. It’s controlled by the arrow keys on a laptop. You click take off, it takes off. You steer it where you want it just like you’re playing a cheap video game. Then you click land and it lands. Amazing.

So, now you take this fly-by-click helicopter and mount the afore mentioned fully automatic shotgun on it and you’ve got one amazing weapon of the future.

(You should probably pause the video to read the captions so you can see when it’s being flown manually and when it’s running autonomously.)

Autocopter maintains level flight while firing AA-12 – Clicky clicky

[Edit: When I emailed the autocopter link to Uncle Robert, who did three tours in Viet Nam, he replied with the following:

“An attack and recon robo-helicopter…I want one, please, pretty please”

The voice of experience.]