My Aviation Journey!

The current status of UAVs

Unmanned aerial vehicles have been on the topic of discussion for the past few years because of what risk they can pose to the American people. What is a UAV you ask? Well, a UAV is mainly a model airplane or helicopter controlled by a person on the ground. Nick Wingfield of the New York Times goes on and says that drones can have "eight or more spinning rotors. They also are capable of autonomous flights with programmed coordinates" (Wingfield, 2016). On the civilian side of UAVs, people mainly use them for aerial photography from a high point in the sky but as time goes on, the use of these drones is becoming more frequent in our society. From emergency response to even getting packages from these flying machines the demand is only growing. The way that the government is regulating these drones is really simple in a way. Wingfield says that the drones must be "operated by a pilot who has passed a written test and is at least 16 years old. Drones can only be flown below 400 feet, during the day, and 5 miles away from airports" (Wingfield, 2016). Some of these rules that apply to commercial use of drones to me would be flying below 400 feet and 5 miles away from airports. Reason being for this is because the FAA does not want one of these drones colliding with any other commercial airplanes and causing a disaster.

With UAVs growing ever so popular in the United States, other countries are already in use or even using these drones as we speak. The Library of Congress says that Australia "has had regulated unmanned aircraft since 2002" and even China "regulates the operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with a maximum empty weight of 116 kilograms or less, or a maximum gross take-off weight of 150 kilograms or less" (Library of Congress, 2017). Its actually really surprising on how much places like Europe, China, and other countries are using this technology to their advantage while the United States is still trying to figure out how to regulate these drones. Reading all of the places that use UAVs from the Library of Congress's post, it seems like they are mainly used for cargo purposes which places like Amazon and Google are trying to pass with the government.

In my personal opinion, I think that UAVs will be integrated into the NAS but is still a little far away from happening. While having drones change the way we receive packages and how emergency responders will react to distress calls, its still in the testing phase over in the United States. The problems I see coming from the government passing these drones would be people pushing their limitations and sitting on the edge of runways to see airplanes taking off and landing after their package was delivered to the recipient. Some perception problems of people seeing UAVs in the sky would be people claiming that its aliens or could be a UFO.

On the military side of UAVs, these unmanned drones have been transforming military strategy immensely. From using these things from reconnaissance to even doing strike missions, these drones have been saving military lives countless of times. The most commonly used drone in the military would be the MQ-1 Predator which according the US Air Force is an "armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude, long endurance remote controlled aircraft" (US Air Force, 2015). This drone is the most widely used aircraft over seas and there has been no substitution ever since. Some of the ethical reasons why the military uses these machines is because they would rather send up a machine that could get shot down than having someone jump into an aircraft and complete the same mission. Which the military would spend more time and money sending someone up.

I believe that there will be more jobs in the UAV department in the near future. Most importantly would be Amazon exploring delivering packages from a big warehouse in the sky and dropping down to a landing pad that you set down on the ground. Amazon's reason for this is instead of waiting for weeks on end for your package to arrive, it would arrive in less than acouple hours which would be a revolutionary result.

References:

Wingfield, N. (2015, November 23). A Field Guide to Civilian Drones. Retrieved February 10, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/technology/guide-to-civilian-drones.html

Acosta, Luis; Buchanan, Kelly; Ahmad, Tariq; Zhang, Laney; Boring, Nicolas; Gesley, Jenny; Levush, Ruth; Umeda, Sayuri; Isajanyan, Nerses; Goitom, Hanibal; Hofverberg, Elin; Yatsunska-Poff, Olena; Feikert-Ahalt, Clare; Papademetriou, Theresa; Johnson, Constance. (2016, April 01). Retrieved February 10, 2018, from https://www.loc.gov/law/help/regulation-of-drones/index.php

MQ-1B Predator. (2015, September 23). Retrieved February 10, 2018, from http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104469/mq-1b-predator/