Drones

UAVs currently are in their infancy being compared to the aviation industry. Most of the UAVs are small aircraft weighing no more than 5 or 10 pounds. This limits their uses of what they can do in the civilian market. Most of the business that these small uavs are capable of doing are photography related. A lot are also used to gather information. (Thompson, 2015) Regulations for drones have just passed Congress and the FAA has put them into effect. These regulations limit how fast the drones can travel and the weight they can carry. It also limits their use to “line-of-sight” use only. This means the pilot must be able to see the drone in order to operate it. This is to help the pilot avoid other air traffic while operating their drone. Another provision put in the regulations to keep these drones from interfering and possibly colliding with aircraft, is that they must fly below 400 feet AGL and outside of airport’s airspace.

As technology improves with drones, I foresee drones starting to get integrated into the National Airspace System (NAS). With NextGen, I see UAV’s becoming more prominent because the collision avoidance systems will be much more accurate. We already have production cars that can drive themselves in the Tesla model S’s autopilot mode, and the military has been using drones for several years now, it’s only a matter of time before civilian drones are flying in our NAS. I do believe though that this won’t be the case for a long time, at least within the next 20 years. However, the training to become a drone pilot (especially to fly commercially and when they become larger aircraft that can actually carry material) will have to be more extensive and will probably require a system of certificates much like how pilots have different certifications. Unlike pilots, a drone’s vision for its pilot (if they become more like our military’s drones) is going to be from cameras and GPS satellites. If these become unavailable or the pilot loses control of the drone, then it will likely crash and could cause injury to anyone on the ground.

As said previously, the military has been using drones extensively for several years now. However, drones have not replaced the roles for pilots in aircraft. The largest mission that drones participate in is the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission. This means their primary purpose is to gather information about a target. There are drones that can destroy ground targets, but there are far fewer of them. The military also uses drones to test air-to-air missile systems as well, these are normally retired F-4 Phantoms and F-16’s that have been converted into target drones. Gathering information via drones has changed the strategy of the military. Instead of sending a pilot flying an aircraft to gather information, they send a drone to get this information, because the drone is cheaper if it is lost than a trained pilot and their aircraft. However, it was found that in 4 studies that recorded the ratio of militants to civilians killed by drone strikes, anywhere between 4-20 percent of the deaths caused by drones were civilians. (Shane, 2012) However, the drones did prove their worth in the ISR field when an RQ-170 was used to gather intelligence for the raid that killed Bin Laden. (Reed, 2011)

Reed, J. (2011, May 07). RQ-170 Stealth Drone Used in Bin Laden Raid - Defensetech. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://www.defensetech.org/2011/05/18/rq-170-sentinel-stealth-drone-used-in-bin-laden-raid/

Shane, S. (2012, July 14). The Moral Case for Drones. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-moral-case-for-drones.html?_r=0

Thompson, M. (2015, February 6). Jobs for Drones Are Set to Take Off. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/jobs-drones-are-set-take-n301506