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Civilian Use of Drone Aircraft May Soon Fly In the US

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-get-a-drone-you-get-a-drone-everybody-gets-a-drone dept.

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from the Seattle Times: "Drone aircraft, best known for their role in hunting and destroying terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, may be coming soon to the skies near you. Police agencies want drones for air support to find runaway criminals. Utility companies expect they can help monitor oil, gas and water pipelines. Farmers believe drones could aid in spraying crops with pesticides. 'It's going to happen,' said Dan Elwell, vice president of civil aviation at the Aerospace Industries Association. 'Now it's about figuring out how to safely assimilate the technology into national airspace.' That's the job of the Federal Aviation Administration, which plans to propose new rules for using small drones in January, a first step toward integrating robotic aircraft into the nation's skyways."

2 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Modern Day Kite Fights? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Meanwhile in the real world R/C clubs are dying off in the cities as land has become way too expensive and the population too densly packed to tolerate small aircraft falling out of the sky just so people can get their thrills.

    Newsflash: Sometimes people leave the city for recreation.

    And now I'll really blow your mind: Some people don't even live in cities to begin with

  2. Re:Every commercial airliner already is a drone by Starker_Kull · · Score: 5, Informative

    No they don't. If it's not a puddle jumper, the damn thing lands itself.

    Well, unless you count 737s, 757s, 767s, 777s, and a few dozen other 100+ seat commercial aircraft as 'puddle jumpers', you are wrong. These airplanes have the capability to autoland, under a highly restricted set of conditions, involving maximum wind speeds (on the 737, max headwind 25 kts, xwind 15 and tailwind 10), clearing a large ILS safe zone on the surface of the airport to assure no interference with the localizer & glide slope antennas, minimum visibilites (because many autopilot systems work only the ailerons & elevator, not the rudder, and once you are on the deck you need the rudder to track the centerline, which the autopilot can no longer do, and neither can you if you can't see), etc., etc., etc.

    I flew 600 hours for a major airline on the 737 last year. I did exactly one autoland in the entire year, and it was because the Captain & I wanted the procedural practice, the airport had a CAT III ILS, and it was a quiet day & ATC was accommodating.

    I really wish I knew what urges people to forcefully declare they know about something when they plainly don't. It only subtracts from the discussion and your credibility.