Like we couldn’t see this one coming.
We’ve seen unmanned aircraft on display in military missions for years and as the years pass, drones are becoming more affordable. So much so, that the FAA has placed a ban on commercial drones over U.S. air space…at least for now.
Everyone from movie directors to law enforcement agencies are seeing the benefit of having highly maneuverable, unmanned, and low cost drones at their disposal. It opens up a wide array of nearly limitless possibilities.
It also opens up some huge issues for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Last fall the FAA placed the ban on drones flying over U.S. soil and now the agency struggles with how to best regulate this latest technology. Commercial airline pilots are less than enthused about the latest target in the skies, especially at a time when most commercial aircraft are dispatched (by the FAA control towers) using the WWII technology of ground-based radar. Commercial planes have highly advanced collision-avoidance systems, which obviously most of these drones will not.
It’s a shame the FAA didn’t predict this issues before it became one. Now, they scramble under the pressure of time to research, develop and then implement new policies to counter this latest boom in aviation. Like we didn’t already have enough challenges to face!
In the end, look for the FAA to roll out drone rules which require the aircraft to fly at lower altitudes, always within visual range of the operator and weigh no more than 30 or 40 pounds. These rules will be tweaked as the months and years roll by and as soon as we have a near miss with a commercial airliner, look for the rules to be overhauled once again.
Drones will soon become commonplace in the skies of America, as we grow more and more comfortable with the aspect of unmanned aircraft. But brace yourself, because commercial jet designers already envision a day when the airline jets of the world operate as unmanned - with no pilots on the flight deck. (They will have a trained crew member on board…just in case.)
Coffee, tea or milk will be replaced with an entirely new and chilling question for the travelers of the future;
Manned or unmanned?
