Current Status of
UAVs
UAVs are
currently being used to today for recreational use. This includes film and photography.
There is also a racing league which puts drones in its own sport. The military
has also been using drones for some time now for top security mission and surveillance.
Drones are starting to be used more for delivery for companies such as Amazon.
There are jobs where operators get paid to take photos of properties, homes,
etc. Each operator has to take a written exam and have an FAA certificate along
with being 16 years of age. The drone itself has to be under 55 pounds and not
fly above 400 feet. (Nyshka Chandran, 2016).
I think
implementing the UAVs into the national airspace can create a traffic jam.
There will have to be a full plan on how they will not affect commercial and GA
aircraft. Eventually I feel they will be implemented due to their efficiency
and capabilities. There will be the need for flight plans and monitoring
systems that will be able to track each drone. This could cloud the airspace
taking the focus off of the airliners. People of the general public could also
have the perception that if multiple drones are flying in the airspace, their
privacy could be violated. This could cause some ethical problems amongst the
public.
The
military has multiple uses for UAVs. Security, Search and Rescue, Monitoring,
Disaster Management, Communications, and Attack functions (Unmanned Ariel
Vehicle System Association, 2017). Having an aircraft in which there cannot be
fatality is awesome. Being able to complete mission without an expensive jet or
pilot can be very beneficial to the cost and men/woman of the military. UAVs
help save lives and gather key information for the countries military. The
mission of the UAV is to ensure safety of the Country and there if is means to
use them when there is danger, it is perfectly ethical to do so.
https://www.indeed.com/q-Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle-jobs.html
. Indeed jobs has a large sample of jobs in The UAV world. From technician to
operator to research. There are multiple avenues that these UAVs have created.
Salaries range from 30,000 to 105,000 on indeed.com. I feel once drone delivery
becomes a full time thing, there will be more job opportunities in the future.
The drone world is starting to boom and that is why the FAA has to start regulating
it or else it will become out of control.
References:
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems
Association Military Applications. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2017, from
https://www.uavs.org/military
Nyshka Chandran, H. (2016, August
29). US drone innovations to take off with new laws. Retrieved February 10,
2017, from
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/29/faas-new-drone-laws-go-into-effect-monday-allowing-us-companies-to-innovate.html
I fully agree with the congestion aspect of the UAV usage, I also wonder how the usage would be affected if ATC were to become privatized, would the UAV market be shut down before it even began, or would it be nurtured because someone might have a friend that works for the privatized ATC. The one thing I would like to point out is that the use of UAV's are on par with the cost of a fully loaded jet. For example the unarmed Predator drone cost roughly $3500. per hour, where a fully loaded A-10 is around $5944 per hour, is it safer without the pilot yes but when an equipped Global Hawk goes out at the cost of $30,000 there doesn't seem to be much in the way of cost savings. Also there are now 7,000 drones in the governments possession.
ReplyDeleteHello Aviation Blogger,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you included that drones are used for racing. I absolutely love watching drone racing on TV and it is very entertaining. It is amazing to me how good the pilots are at controlling those little drones, and it makes me wonder if we should be using these guys in the military is they are so good at it. It probably isn’t the right path for most of them, and there are also a lot of kids involved, but I’m sure their skills could be utilized in many ways.
I also like your answer to the second question. I think it would be difficult in implement them into the NAS, but eventually I think we will get to that point. Privacy is another aspect that I didn’t even think of. I touched on this question from more of a safety standpoint, but I do agree that people may feel violated if they think they are being spied on or something. Obviously that is not likely, but people can think any number of crazy things.
I like how you organized your post. I didn't know that Amazon started the drones delivery and I just knew that by reading your post. I have done an Internet research and I found out that Amazon has a program call Amazon Prime Air which ables the customers to get theirs orders within 30 minutes. Thank you for the useful information.
ReplyDeleteHi Aviation Blogger,
ReplyDeleteYou made a good point when you mentioned that the FAA has to start regulating or else things become out of control. UAVs are very easy to attain currently, and they do have (or will have) a big impact on our daily lives. I feel like we are at the stage of beginning UAV use, just like when aviation started to boom. Laws were enacted as response to incidents or accidents. I feel that we will see the same trend when it comes to UAVs.