For comparison, here’s a side by side of the two bulb-nosed robo-planes:
The copycat drone went down in a flaming wreck around the Chinese village of Huining, Chinese Defence Mashup reports, and was eagerly photographed by locals before the government locked the area down. Why? It’s rather embarrassing when your drones crash for no apparent reason on your own turf, that’s why. At least our drones have the decency to be spectacularly shot out of the sky or s**t the bed in the line of fire. [China Defence Mashup via Flight Global]
Predator photo by Gary Williams/Getty; Pterodactyl model photo by Greg Waldron
ed. cameron
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 7:42 AMWell after all said and done,the Drone is
“MADE IN CHINA”
olearymo
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 8:42 AMas is almost any electronic gadget you may have. Even the expensive ones.
Stand back?
olearymo
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 8:43 AMThe Chinese government spent ages designing this drone in their completely original military headquarters, The Hexagon.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 8:52 AMAll well and good taking the piss out of them now, but they will eventually get it right! Remember the US is in debt to them up to the eyeballs! So China is fast becoming the new world leader, so lets not piss em off mmKay! #]
wsDK_II
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 9:23 AMSo the fact that american drones fall out of the sky on average 1 times per week overseas is not going to be mentioned here?
American arrogance will be the end of us. Did you know that more american soldiers were killed in the iraq war by friendly fire then enemy fire?
america, fuck yea :(
EckyThump
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 9:50 AMHmm, yeah, kinda did, I’ve mentioned myself previously. They really need to change their political system and their stance on being the world democracy police!
light487
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 11:46 AMWhy are you reposting racial slurs? My opinion of Gizmodo has taken a nose-dive (no pun intended) with this article.
EckyThump
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 12:20 PMErm… What?
olearymo
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 12:29 PMRacial slurs? I don’t see any racial slur here. A country copied the design of another country’s weapon, and it failed. We’re making fun of the country for badly copying something.
Where’s the slur?
light487
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 1:33 PMIf you can’t see it, then I guess it’s long past anyone trying to explain it to you. The point is, just because it’s “Made in China” doesn’t automatically mean it is doomed to failure. As wsDK_II points out, American drones fall out of the sky regularly, but because a Chinese engineered and built one does, it is suddenly a Nation-Fail?
Let’s take a look at the language in this article:
“China’s Predator Drone Ripoff Crashes And Explodes” The byline is innocent enough but then we have “Shocker!”.
“In China’s rush to be a 21st century military power, it might be possible some engineering’s been a little… rushed.”
“At least our drones have the decency to be spectacularly…”
Yes, that’s about 50% of the total article being a point of nation-based ridicule.
The “Made in China” joke is old and no longer relevant and is now just plain offensive when done in the way it was above.
It’s one thing to have a quick “snicker” about it.. it an entirely other matter to publish derogatory matter in online or print media.
wsDK_II
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 1:55 PM+1
but then again, China will win against the US in the end, so they will have the last laugh. I am sure they can handle the racial sulrs for now :)
boc
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 5:02 PM“Made in China” means something of poor quality and it is still perfectly apt today.
Earlier this year there was a major catastrophe with one of their “Chinese designed” trains.
China has a long reputation for poor quality products and it’s well deserved.
olearymo at least pointed out that a lot of our consumer electronics are made in China as well. In those cases I’d argue that Chinese companies bought or were given the knowledge and knowhow.
The only thing China is good at is manufacturing what foreigners tell them to; other than that there isn’t much coming out from China that is both Chinese and good.
Regarding it being racist – lighten up.
light487
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 6:30 PMThat train crash was due to signal failure, not the trains themselves. The first train had stopped and the second train ran into the back of it.
I may have overreacted, I admit that, but now that I am “there”.. I can’t see the article any other way..
Oh well.. :) We live, we learn, we move on. :)
boc
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 3:54 PMYes it was a signal failure. I should have said train system or something instead of just trains.
China didn’t want to purchase the signalling system used by the TGV and instead built their own. The system they built was inferior and consequently failed. This was revealed in the investigation that followed the accident.
Glad you can at least take a step back.
JL
Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 5:41 PMChina is huge. Some of its factories make bad quality stuff – like everything you find in $2 shops. Some of its factories make good quality stuff – like Apple, Lenovo, etc.
But all are made cheaply by comparison to US or other developed countries.
If they can make drones for 10% of the cost of US, even if 8 out of 10 of their drones crash, they would still have twice the “drone-power” of US – assuming US drones don’t ever crash – which, of couse, is not the case.
More like
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 5:02 PMLooks like another Predator had been shot down while conducting espionage.
TC
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 1:12 AMIt’s PSed, see the plants behind the plane