# Chinese scale model..black helicopters

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 21, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522 "2006-07-21T19:21:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522/1 "2006-07-21T19:21:43Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Those among you who like your skies darkened by black helicopters are invited to mosey on down to the remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community:

> **[Chinese black helicopters circle Google Earth](https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2006/07/19/chinese-black-helicopters-circle-google-earth/429148)**
>
> Mystery military project wows the crowd

It’s a 900x700m scale model of a mountainous landscape. Some Google Earth dude with WAY too much time on his hands found that it was a match with a disputed area on the Chinese/Indian border.

Amazing level of detail.

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**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522/2 "2006-07-21T19:26:50Z")

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That’s really weird. I can’t imagine what they’re doing with it…

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**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522/3 "2006-07-21T19:57:35Z")

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WAG:

Prior to the current state of multimedia, one way that realistic flight simularion was done was to have a large diarama (the one I saw at the UAL training center in denver was on a big wall) and “fly” a camera over it with a servo system.

Or maybe if you wanted to train remotely operated tank drivers using small models?

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**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522/4 "2006-07-21T19:59:29Z")

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It’s hard to imagine why they would do this when a computer simulation would be so much more flexible.

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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-scale-model-black-helicopters/365522/5 "2006-07-21T23:49:21Z")

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[QUOTE=Kevbo]  
WAG:

Prior to the current state of multimedia, one way that realistic flight simularion was done was to have a large diarama (the one I saw at the UAL training center in denver was on a big wall) and “fly” a camera over it with a servo system.

Or maybe if you wanted to train remotely operated tank drivers using small models?  
[/QUOTE]

It’s hard to imagine it being used for a flight sim. All the installations like that I’ve ever seen are much, much smaller. And you’d need to have some rig to move the camera around remotely. I can’t imagine how you’d do that on a model that size.

On the other hand the radio-controlled tank sim idea has merit. I can imagine staging a big wargame on a map like this.