DRONES

     Drones are UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles. 

Male Drone Bee

     The dictionary meaning of drone is defined as a male bee only, used for mating purposes, without a sting.  A drone is also defined as a lazy person that doesn’t work, contribute, or give off any sort of energy towards a constructive activity. 

     The man-made aircraft drones are able to fly without a pilot.  Drones usually have a controller on the ground.  These aircraft are superior because the margin for error is cut drastically.  The cost of the aircraft can be cheaper.  Drones don’t need safety paraphernalia for emergency situations when the pilot might have to abort and eject. 

     Not all of the drones are used for the military.  Easily, you could think of another use for a drone.  We could use personal drones to run simple errands, like dropping mail at the post office.

     Aircraft drones have a variety of uses.  Some are super light, and others aren’t far from a real plane.    A large number of UAVs have been loaded with a plethora of surveillance technologies, such as real-time video and thermal imaging technology.  Taking pictures from surreal places and altitudes is a wonderful use (http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-flying-videos-2014-4).  Some other civil applications include:   police missions, firefighting, security work, private surveillance, commercial agriculture, mineral exploration, emergency management operations, etc. 

Personal-use Drone

     A drone eliminates some pilot liabilities, but there is still plenty of room for mechanical issues.  If any situations arise, error would be attributed to mechanical malfunctions.

     Technology also brings cyber issues that weren’t a problem prior to drone flights.  A jogger was in a park running a race and got hit by a hacked drone.  (http://io9.com/athlete-struck-by-potentially-hacked-aerial-drone-1560728218)  Another news headline with drones was about the crash into an elementary school.  Drones could be anywhere, and in the future will be used to carry packages for companies such as AMAZON.com.  Just keep up with the headlines and you’ll see them before you actually see them in the air.  (http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/04/07/ten-drones-intercepted-nss/)

          “As of August 2013, commercial unmanned aerial system licenses were granted on a case-by-case basis, subject to approval by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). A Congressional mandate to integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems into U.S. airspace protocols are forecast to grant FAA licenses more broadly as early as 2015, the agency expecting that five years after it unveils a regulatory framework for UASs weighing 55 pounds or less, there will be 7,500 such devices in the air(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle).”  Also, it is deemed that DJI Phantom Drones can’t enter no-fly zones. The issue has gone back and forth with the FAA which is attempting to control drone regulations.  An advisory issue in 1981 has remained.  Drones are unable to fly above 400 feet or near airports.

Federal Aviation Administration (USA)

     South Korea suspects that three drones discovered in recent weeks came from North Korea.  They were painted light blue, resembling remote control airplanes, but equipped with scrambling gear to ensure secure airspace.  South Korea’s defense ministry believed the spy drones were from Pyongyang.  South Korea also has their own reconnaissance drone program which includes a deal to buy four Global Hawk UAVs from Northrop Grunman Corp for over $800 million.



Drone crash found in S. Korea.



   








  There are a variety of drones:

 

 

 

 

     What is your opinion on drones? 

           “Canada has seen a highly select group of government actors pave the way in setting UAV policy in Canada. Seemingly, though, none of them concern Canadians’ privacy rights. Public privacy bodies, privacy academics, and civil liberties experts are key groups that serve the public interest when it comes to privacy and surveillance technologies. Canadians deserve better. All UAV working groups at the federal level ought to include representatives from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at the very least. Ideally, these groups should include members of the scholarly and civil-liberties communities. Failure to include these organizations in policy development will lead to myopic UAV policies that are very likely to infringe upon Canadians’ privacy rights (http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/opd/Canada+needs+privacy+rules+drones/9710176/story.html).”

     A volunteer search and rescue team out of Houston is contacting the FAA to combat their drone restrictions.  The Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team has retained drone lawyer Brendan Schulman.  The team would like to sue about FAA and airspace regulations on search and rescue drones, Spectra flying wing plane with attached cameras.  Their drones can photograph a square mile in less than 10 minutes.

     UAVs will revolutionize crop management on farms, make package delivery even faster, equip your tech-savvy neighbors with their own personal satellite controlled squadrons of drones, provide for more environmental uses such as flying around after earthquakes and floods to survey damage and look for victims in distress.  In the 2011 tsunami in Japan, damaged nuclear reactor drones flew in to monitor radiation when it was still too dangerous for humans.  In the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines the drones flew lower than helicopters and pilots to survey the damage.  

   

SOCHI 2014 Winter Olympics Drone

  Drones have become the next “thing” in sports professional photography.  During the Winter Olympics in Sochi, drones captured some of the best aerial photography ever seen in ski and snowboarding events.  They are more flexible than cable suspended camera systems.  UAVs began as a gimmick, but will be the constant soon enough.  Remo Masina, sports photography, cited via Associated Press that, “Drones are quieter and cheaper than a manned helicopter, although they can still charge up to $40,000.00.  They also allow the filmmaker to get much closer to his subject.”  A few prototypes are being programmed to follow their skiing subjects automatically from a few feet away.

    

AMAZON.com Delivery Drone

     Have you caught yourself hearing the UPS or FEDEX driver ever 30 minutes until your beloved package makes the front steps?  Amazon delivery drones will help.  Timed drones are delivering AMAZON packages straight to customer’s doors within 30 minutes of an order being placed.  That is faster than going to the mall.  AMAZON CEO Jeff Bezos, released on 4/12/2014, in a letter to shareholders, that the company has flight-tested several generations of, Prime Air, aerial vehicles.  One expansion with drone delivery will be with fresh food: soups, sodas, chips, jelly, cornbread in a box, and macaroni with cheese. The future is near.

     UAVs aren’t very similar to the dictionary meaning of a drone.  As of this moment, none of them are used to carry pollen and mate.  None of them seem to work efficiently at creating honey, either.   Surveillance drones could be compared to a lazy person that doesn’t work, contribute, or give off any sort of energy towards a constructive activity.  Alternatively, a drone can be exactly what it is programmed to be: FBI informant, university researcher, amateur photographer, or a curious neighbor.