I do, because it would be awesome!
I’m not sure there’s much risk of terrorism via small plane. What can a terrorist do in a light plane that couldn’t be done better from a panel van? Throwing pipe bombs out the side of a plane would be very inaccurate from a plane. You could aim better and carry many more bombs throwing them out the side of a car. Small arms fire from a plane like that wouldn’t do squat besides make a few people find cover. And anything you could spray out of a crop duster, you could also spray out from the back of a truck, again while carrying a lot more.
I suppose it would have a bit more psychological impact to see some crazy dude circling overhead for a while.
You’re completely overlooking the fact that a van could be much more quickly stopped than a crop duster. You’re also overlooking the fact that a van is a slave to traffic and other obstacles on the road.
All it takes to stop a van is someone willing to ram it with their truck. A crop duster would have to be shot down, which would be risky in, say, the middle of New York during rush hour.
Look at the cost/benefit. First, you can get more shooters in a van than you can in a small plane. Second, if you choose to blow something up, a van can carry several times the explosive payload of a small aircraft. If you’re distributing an aerosol, a van can carry more of it. You may not get the distribution you would in a cropduster, but you’d have a higher concentration. I’ve seen footage of DDT trucks that seemed to do a good job.
A terrorist is likely to die in the commission of his crime. ISTM that he’d want to buy the most casualties possible for the price of his life. A van is much less expensive to buy and to modify than an airplane is, a suicide terrorist is more likely to be found among non-pilots than pilots (9/11 notwithstanding), training costs are lower, vans are less conspicuous than aircraft, and casualties would be higher in a van than in an aircraft.
Spray nerve gas over a sold out stadium?
Well, Johnny, there’s only way to settle this.
Yes, that’s right, a Terrorist Off.
You just got served!
Ooh, good thinking.
Who, me?
I’m non-violent.
EDIT: Might make an interesting episode for Junkyard Wars, though.
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Well, first, a fighter’s cannon doesn’t “lock”. A computer computes an the trajectory of the bullets and places an aim point on the HUD. The pilot then directs his aircraft to put the aim point where he wants it and squeezes the trigger. When he does, a multitude of very big bullets will quickly arrive in the neighborhood of the aerobatic aircraft.
Secondly, it would be incredibly easy to put an aim point on one of the aircraft in the video. If you’ll notice, the only time it’s flying fast, it’s traveling in a straight line or a big curve. The computer will compute the necessary lead angle.
When he/she is performing a wild aerobatic maneuver, the aircraft isn’t translating through space very fast at all. In fact, at some points, the airspeed is near zero. In simpler words, it’s a sitting duck.
When the Russians started performing the Cobra manuever with their SU-27s and MiG-29s at airshows some years ago, everyone was wowed by their maneuverability. And they should have been - it’s an impressive accomplishment in a fighter jet. However, some of the more combat-wise people pointed out that, when they performed it, their airspeed went to zero and they were a big old fat target for several moments afterward.
Can’t the Chair Force get a Predator or some UAV up to intercept?
I’d make a thread specific to coming up with ideas (like the crop duster over the stadium), but I don’t want people to think I’m up to anything. 
But on topic, I think, if he was just flying around, shooting out of the plane, they’d just wait for him to land.
Anyone know how long these things can fly before running out of fuel?
Exactly why I said this would never happen. Once you attack anything with an airplane, you are on a suicide mission. Therefore, you would attack your target without warning. Stunting around tossing pipe bombs is stupid and monumentally ineffective. You either kamikaze your target on the first pass or you pick some other means of getting the job done.
I’d be much more worried about a chemical attack than some nut in a plane.
Wouldn’t be awesome for New Yorkers - but I live in SF. Let’s do this.
For a terrorist, any decent sized gathering of people is a potential target, and there are any number of ways to attack a target. Ball game, parade, concert, political rally, shopping center, school, hospital, amusement park, highway, tunnel, airport, casino, cruise ship, train station, beach, campground, recreational area, etc. All vulnerable in dozens if not hundreds of ways.
The best available defense is preventing such attacks from taking place. The challenge is preventing such attacks by legal means while still respecting Constitutional rights. How much freedom are you willing to trade for additional “safety”, knowing that total safety is not possible?
Actually, a stadium might be a reasonable place to use an aircraft. Even a small one striking the stands at the shallowest possible angle would kill several people.
Especially in a city where guns are outlawed.
National Guard would be my guess as to who would be the first responders to a situation like this. While the plane is aerobatic, at some point its going to be venerable in its energy/altitude envelope, and the cuban airfore had no problems shooting down a cesna or piper cub in the nineties, or nato taking out serbian turbo props , again in the nineties.
Declan
A small plane like that would be pretty vulnerable to shotgun fire, I think, at least if you’re shooting something heavier than birdshot. And as others have noted, these aerobatic planes are pretty easy targets when they’re maneuvering because their airspeed is so low.
Finally, there’s no reason to think that these planes will actually be maneuvering very well- these are extremely skilled pilots, and pilots this skilled are probably in short supply in terrorist circles.
I don’t know how likely it is you could shoot down a plane with buckshot. Airplanes are mostly empty space. You could poke some holes in the fuel tanks, or you might hit the pilot. But It’s very likely that there will be no fire or other catastrophic damage. You really need to put up enough lead with enough velocity to break something.
Not really. Effective range of a shotgun even loading buckshot is going to be 40-50 yards or so. Unless the plane makes a pass right at a shooter, a shotgun isn’t going to do much. To take the plane down with small arms from the ground, you’re going to need to be able to hit him multiple times from a range of several hundred yards. That takes rifles or better. Part of the challenge is getting somebody in position to have a decent shot at the plane. Even if you happen to have a squad of fully armed infantry soldiers wandering through Manhattan at the right time, they have no way to predict the flight path in time to move into position.