Sadly we’ve seen drones come under fire from many types of weapon over the past few years. From angry neighbours with guns to other drones carrying nets and laser-guided hackers, it seems that some people are just as keen to take drones out of the sky as they are to fly them. There’s a whole industry developing around counter drone technology.
Whichever techniques you might have come across, one thing’s for sure. Sometimes you just can’t beat the classics. They just don’t make anti-drone weapons like they used to. This was definitely the case at a recent middle ages festival in Lipetsk, Russia, where one really enthusiastic medieval enthusiast decided to take down a drone. With a spear.
The drone was innocently hovering overhead and filming proceedings – the media company had been asked to film the event – when one bold man thought it would be a good idea to test his aim, throwing a spear and causing the quadcopter to plummet to the ground.
Pavel Semyonov, an organizer of the medieval event, explained after that the cause of the crash could be traced to a nearby weapons contest, which was getting the crowd, understandably, pretty pumped and full of adrenaline.
The spear thrower has since apologized for his medieval moment and compensated the drone owner for the damaged quadcopter.
We strongly recommend you keep your drone away from armed Russians in the future. Good news though: Next year the festival plans to have an actual contest in which enthusiasts can aim at flying targets.
Malek Murison is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for tech trends and innovation. He handles product reviews, major releases and keeps an eye on the enthusiast market for DroneLife.
Email Malek
Twitter:@malekmurison
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