Bruce Simpson, designer and builder of a low cost, homebrew cruise missile, has posted a rather interesting plea to sell his services. He claims that after the New Zealand government shut down work on cruise missiles, his family has been placed under significant economic stress, and he is how willing to design low cost cruise missiles for anyone who is willing to pay his modest requests (but as he assures us, not for terrorists).

I first read Simpsons webpages several years ago, and marvelled at his good work on pulse jets including his jet powered gokart. He’s a very skilled designer, and his pages have lots of good information about pulsejets, metal spinning, and all sorts of other good stuff. I’m left with a vaguely unhappy feeling about this mercenary turn of mind. I wasn’t very happy when I heard word of the NZ government shutting down the project, as it seemed a heavy handed way to deal with him, but I’m less certain after reading his diatribe. A man as talented as he is could find work in any of a number of industries, and it seems odd that he would focus on trying to become a weapons supplier in preference to other occupations of a more socially redeeming nature.

His page goes on to explain that he is basically doing this to show how feasible it is, and to call attention to the danger that developments like this represent. The arguments sound suspiciously like those of so-called hackers who break into systems to illustrate their weakness. It’s far from clear to me how why breaking, entering and vandalizing computer systems should be considered a benefit to society. In the same way, building a weapons system that can deliver 10kg of explosives doesn’t make anyone safer.