Cruise missile

A cruise missile is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. Cruise missiles are, in essence, unmanned aircraft. They are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many hundreds of miles with excellent accuracy. Modern cruise missiles normally travel at subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and fly low in order to avoid radar detection.

Trivia: A "DIY" cruise missile

There was also a project by a New Zealander named Bruce Simpson to design and test fly a home-built cruise missile. It was funded by private investors, and it was planned to be built for under $5,000, which is remarkably cheaper than the approximate 1.9 million USD used to build the Tomahawk.

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Simpson intended to use readily available components to build a basic missile system. His extensive experience in the building of radio controlled model aircraft would be employed in airframe and control surface design. A commercially available GPS unit linked to a standard PLC unit running custom developed software would be used for guidance and control. Propulsion would come from a pulse jet engine of his own design.

Related Topics:
Radio control - Model aircraft - GPS - PLC

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Payload was intended to be in the region of 10–15 kilograms. Not enough to do significant damage if loaded with conventional explosives but sufficient to be used as a dispersal system for biological/chemical agents.

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In late 2003, however, Simpson ran into tax difficulties, and ended the project. He later claimed that his tax problems were the result of a government attempt to shut him down.

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