John,
You might be surprised to learn that a lot of those posts aren't made by engineering students working on a project at all. I get security briefings all the time and anything drone technology is high on the "want list" for African and some eastern countries. They have some pretty bright people over there but they are in a hurry. They are not interested in hobby aircraft but instead use them fro things quite dangerous to Westerner's. The moment I see terms like "heavy lift, aerial spraying, and agricultural applications, 50Km range, 2 hour flight time", alarm bells start going off in my head. I want to know a lot more about them before saying anything. In fact, even knowing a lot about them I tend to say little. I've seen our hobby technology used in some pretty mean and nasty ways, and RC cars and little airplanes have been in those observations.
