Automagic No-Fly-Zone Enforcement

An anonymous reader writes "SoftWalls is the name of an aviation project at UC-Berkeley that's developing a system for commercial airliners that establishes and enforces no-fly zones. Basically, through GPS, if a plane begins to enter a no-fly zone (eg, around a mountain, or over Lower Manhattan), an alarm goes off in the cockpit. If ignored, the system actively removes control of the plane away from the pilot and co-pilot to steer the plane out of the no-fly zone. The technology is intended as both an accident prevention technique and a deterrent to terrorists planning to ram a building. ABCNews recently profiled the project (with video) and also rode along with a working prototype built by Honeywell that successfully kept a Beechcraft from hitting a mountain."

In other news...

[zakezuke]

Terrorists cause planes to crash due to bogus information sent to the GPS, simulating a no fly zone situation, and causing them to crash into buildings.

The FAA has been reported as saying "Yep, it's doing it's job, we couldn't see such a useful feature being exploited".

The FAA is also considering trained monkeies to replace the crew. Passangers, who will be given shock buttons, seems to enjoy this idea... far too much.

Re:The real question is ...

[Megor1]

No the REAL question is how much mana does it take to get a "*Automagic* No-Fly-Zone Enforcement" going.

Re:shot down?

[EvilSporkMan]

Additionally, I have a problem accepting that jets would scramble fast enough to be able to do so...
No jets need to be scrambled to launch a surface-to-air missile - it's launched from the surface, and it goes to the air.

Re:The lower Manhattan nightmare scenerio

[niko9]

And people tell me that there are no advantages to living in the Bronx.

Re:Situation...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Grandma is not in control of her new Windows XP box

Hell, Windows XP isn't fully in control of the box itself ...

I find it amusing that you illustrate your point about security with a Windows example :-)

I hate those kind of buzz words

[DJStealth]

Not to be a troll but does anyone else in here hate words like "Automagic"

Re:The real question is ...

[Eristone]

No the REAL question is how much mana does it take to get a "*Automagic* No-Fly-Zone Enforcement" going.

Well, first you need mountains and plains. You can have only 1 plain in play for any one creature to watch them. Creature must have ability to fly. If the mountain is tapped, one plain and one creature goes to the grave yard.

Okay - that means you need to have enough other land in play and enough counterspells to prevent your opponents from tapping your mountain. I'd suggest lots of islands.

Planes are evil - ride a camel like Allah intended

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't take out a mosque by crashing a camel into it.

All is good.

Camels are not a Microsoft product.

Thank you.

Re:One word: Bugs

[Anonymous Coward]

But... but... the SUV dealers would go out of business! Won't someone please think of the children!?