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Amazon Reveals New Delivery Drone Design With Range of 15 Miles (geekwire.com)
reifman writes: Amazon released new video of its futuristic drones (honestly, the thought of them buzzing around is the only thing that makes me want to join the NRA) but there's some hopefulness here. Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated 'sense and avoid' technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more. 'It looks like science fiction, but it's real: One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.' Amazon said its drones fly under 400 feet and weigh less than 55 pounds.
Hey, if there's money to be made killing that guy, Amazon is probably interested (at least a little).
There are other challenges. The city where I live has three airports roughly 1/3 of the way around the circle, so each of those airports has a six-mile no-fly zone making huge areas off limits. Worse, a state agency not actually chartered to worry about air vehicles, has on their own decided most of the remaining actual downtown is also off-limits because they don't want drones flying near state-owned buildings.
Note they have no legal constitutional ability to enforce this rule but they are doing so anyway and will arrest people regardless if they have FAA approval. Amazon won't be exempted.
Worse for Amazon, their local fulfillment warehouse is located only a mile from a major airport and in fact planes coming in or leaving pass over the Amazon facility at only about 300 feet. There is no way Amazon could use that site.
Sig for hire.
Which IIRC only applies above 400ft. There's a reason Amazon is aiming for below 400 ft travel.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
The city where I live has three airports roughly 1/3 of the way around the circle, so each of those airports has a six-mile no-fly zone making huge areas off limits.
Really? How do you use an airport in a no-fly zone? What airports actually have is controlled airspace, which means that you need to ask for (and receive) permission from the airport before you can fly, and you need to be in constant communication with the tower so they can for example tell you to ditch your drone if it interferes with someone having an emergency. It's not a no-fly zone.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The FAA says no UAS activity within 5 miles of an airport.
No, no it does not. It says not without clearance, and even that rule didn't exist until 2014. Go forth and use google.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"