Testing the US Military’s Worst Idea

As someone from the military. I assure you, this is not their worst idea.

My favourite part is where Adam Savage appears out of nowhere, as if desert explosion tests just summon him 😂

rod swinging wildly back and forth on the helicopter everyone: "wow I can't believe that missed the target."

Imagine going through all of this work, spent all that money, and got all of these people together to make this video and not thinking of putting stabilizing fins on the object you are dropping from 500m

Wish there was a point in the experiment that the goal switch from accuracy to "lets see how big crater get from dropping really high" and proceed to have everyone really far away until it lands.

I'm a little shocked that no smaller-scale testing was done prior to the full-scale "helicopters and sand castle professionals" part was brought out. A drone with a piece of rebar would have taught you a lot about the need for targeting apparatus, the lack of fins, etc.

Huh, forgot to add fins, refused to shorten the rope connecting the payload, refusing to have people walk away to a safe distance to test extreme height, refusing to try and use lasers to track positioning... Interesting...

Dangling heavy objects from ROPES high up under an undulating, gyrating, helicopter and expecting ANY degree of accuracy. UMMM…..

I like to imagine that Adam Savage just materializes whenever something fun like this is happening in the desert

Honestly I'm surprised about how elementary this set up was

This was a fun watch but the fact they watched the weight swing around and yet just kept thinking they were missing cause they weren't lined up was infuriating

Nothing happened, elaborates, nothing happened, leaves without elaborating

Genuinely shocked at the scant amount of forethought that went into something with a budget this large.

I'm shocked at how little thought went into properly testing this idea, especially when compared to the amount of money and number of people involved.

16:40 Another mistake other than not adding fins was not having an aero nose, but a flat front that encounters so much more air/wind resistance.

This could have been a 5 minute explanation. Nothing actually representative happened.

The fact that they didn't seem to anticipate that a weight dangling from a helicopter on a tether would be swinging all over the place is ... odd to say the least.

I find it hard to believe the engineering problems couldn't be worked out. At one time it was thought you couldn't hit a missile with another missile.

>Put satellite with rods into orbit. >is over target >let's go of rod >rod stays in orbit >orbital_mechanics_aren't_helicopters.png

As a retired military aviation specialist, I've had firsthand experience with the complexities of dropping objects from altitude, particularly missiles. When you release something from a high altitude, it doesn't simply drop straight down. Various factors influence its trajectory. First, there's the forward momentum; whatever you're dropping is initially moving at the same speed as the aircraft. Then, wind plays a significant role; higher altitudes can have stronger and often different wind directions than at ground level. Additionally, Earth's rotation affects trajectories over long distances—a phenomenon known as the Coriolis effect. Lastly, the design of the object, such as a missile, includes aerodynamics intended to guide it towards a target, but this guidance must account for all these factors to be accurate. It's a complex interplay of physics, requiring precise calculations and adjustments for successful deployment.