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Google's Wing Drones Approved To Make Public Deliveries In Australia (theverge.com)
Alphabet's Wing drone delivery company is launching its first public drone delivery service in Canberra, Australia, after the country's aviation authority granted it regulatory approval. "Around 100 homes in the suburbs of Crace, Palmerston, and Franklin will initially have access to the service, but in the coming months the company plans to expand it to homes in Harrison and Gungahlin," reports The Verge. From the report: The service works by partnering with local businesses including coffee shops and pharmacies to deliver their products "in minutes." Wing's regulatory approval comes with restrictions. Drones will not be allowed to fly over main roads, they will only be allowed to fly between 7am and 8pm on Monday to Friday (or between 8am and 8pm on Sundays), and they will be restricted from flying too close to people. Customers in eligible homes will also be given a safety briefing about interacting with the drones. Wing predicts that drone deliveries could be worth as much as AU$30 to AU$40 million to businesses in the area, and says drones could deliver as many as one in four takeaway orders by 2030.
Shush Ivan ... or are you really stupid enough to believe that it's a good idea to shoot ourselves in the nuts by not developing any military technology while totalitarian regimes are pushing full throttle on them?
The famous private drone delivery video that went viral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
How to get more Australian that that? A pie delivered by trained cockatoo?
Australia went from having some of the best (fairest) drone regulations in the world to what will become some of the worst.
Obviously "money talks" because Google is able to fly its big, heavy delivery drones around Canbera, over people's houses, heads and roads -- but as of November of this year, nobody under the age of 16 will be allowed to fly even a 101 gram toy plane in their own back yard without being "supervised" by another person who is 18 years or older and has passed a drone competency exam.
Seriously?
Talk about a great way to kill the hobby that has, for a century or more, gotten kids excited about aviation to the extent that they go on to become pilots, engineers and designers of full-sized aircraft.
I'd love to know what "inducements" Google rolled out to those granting the permissions for its drone tests because it seems they even got an exemption from the requirement to meet minimum noise standards -- otherwise their tests would still be illegal.
It's not what you know that counts -- eh?
This story made me think of Flight of the Phoenix, a 1965 film starring Jimmy Stewart (there is also a bad remake from 2004). A cargo plane is lost in the Sahara after being downed by a sandstorm. The story is all about how the crew and passengers find a way out. Key to this is that the plane, a Fairchild C-82, has enough undamaged parts that, with the tools they have, they can build a new aircraft sufficient to fly them out. It's a fun movie. The brains behind the rebuild is Dorfmann (played by Hardy Krüger) who works as an aeronautical designer and engineer. Only near the end of the film is it learned that he works for a toy company building motorized flying models rather than big commercial aircraft. Needless to say, that despite the confrontational moments that that reveal brings, the new plane flies, and all are saved, and Dorfmann is a redeemed hero.
For most of motorized aviation history, the distinction between toys and "real planes" was obvious, and it is easy to understand how Dorfmann's ideas would have been derided. But today, the line seems very blurry. In this article, toy airplanes are serving legitimate commercial roles as a means of post and delivery. Larger scale versions of such drone-derived aircraft are starting to show up as personal flying cars, flying boats, military vehicles, law enforcement purposes, research and science, and media and the arts.
The distinction is gone. It used to be that a top of the line IBM 360 took up a giant room with massive electrical and cooling overhead to deliver far less than a smart phone in your pocket can do these days. Back when planes were "big iron", tiny radio controlled models were just toys. Now, they might just revolutionize the whole commercial and military airspace.
Three cheers to Dorfmann.
Just a bit of background. There was a trial by project Wing last year (mentioned in TFA). That trial copped enormous backlash from local residents, mostly around the noise.
Despite the public outcry, they are proceeding with the next step towards commercialisation.
How did they manage this? And why Canberra?
Canberra (Australia's capital city) sits in a Territory (ACT), not a State. The jurisdiction distinction between Federal laws and Territory laws are less clear compared to between Federal laws and State laws. For example, the ACT has in the past has legalised marijuana, euthanasia, and pill testing, and each one has been struck down by Federal government. This would not have happened if the ACT was a state.
Project Wing have wedged themselves into this gray area. With the Territory government and the federal Aviation Authority (CASA) each pointing the finger at each other, arguing about who's jurisdiction it falls into. The local government doesn't really want it to proceed, but doesn't feel like it has the power to stop it.
This is Google. I already foresee the next /. headline "Google Disbands Drone Delivery"
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.