Message posted by Andre' M. Dall'au on January 10, 2003 at 6:58:16 PST:
Interesting article about domestic UAV use. As they get smaller and cheaper the uses will go from the useful military to the annoying civil. I'm sure within a few years when there is a traffic accident or domestic issue, the local air will be filled with small buzzing drones with "CHANNEL 7 EYEWITNESS NEWS" painted on the side. Film at eleven. Washington Post 01/01/03 Federal regulators have begun considering rules that would allow drones, the Supporters envision the use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial But critics worry that they drones could endanger the millions of travelers "To even contemplate mixing unmanned vehicles with the commercial sector is Drones are typically operated by pilots on the ground or computers. For Already, some in Congress are beginning to consider the idea. "I have long Warner called for a White House study on the use of drones by domestic There is currently no commercial market for drones, but they are flown Acknowledging the potential of the market, the FAA is already contemplating "The usefulness of this type of vehicle is infinite. Anything that a small Critics worry that a commercial airplane encountering a drone would be in "The technology is not sophisticated enough to assure the safety of other The Pentagon has been experimenting with pilotless planes for half a A drone can rival a 747 in size or weigh just 10 pounds with a nine-foot Once drones reach mass production their cost will drop below that of manned A fleet of drones could be operated by a relatively small number of Even if the drones were to fly at extremely high altitudes where commercial Further, critics point to the drones' spotty record in the military. During "If you look at the military, they have an extremely high attrition rate. Defense contractors acknowledge the safety issues, and say they are being And if a pilot guiding a drone from the ground were to lose contact, there While they work on the safety issues, defense contractors say that federal "There could be a lot of opportunities in the UAV marketplace. . . . We General Atomics, which makes the Predator, tests drones at an airport in El "An ideal end point would be to be able to file and fly," said Todd Blecher, An industry group that wants to fly unfettered above 40,000 feet, proposed a Among the restrictions likely to emerge is a requirement that the pilots who The Coast Guard, which wants to add drones to its arsenal, is contemplating "These vehicles are too costly to be considered throwaways," said Bob
Andre'
author: Renae Merle
pilotless planes being used in the war in Afghanistan, to fly in U.S.
airspace.
vehicles, for such tasks as moving cargo, pinpointing traffic problems,
patrolling the border, searching for fugitives or fighting forest fires --
creating a domestic commercial market for drones that some believe could be
worth more than $2 billion during this decade."There is a pent-up demand for
civil and commercial application" of drones, said Scott Dann, president of
an industry group that is pushing for commercial drones, which includes
Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp.
who fly in thousands of private and commercial aircraft. They also question
whether the aircraft are reliable enough to fly in domestic airspace.
widely premature at best," said John Carr, president of the National Air
Traffic Controllers Association. "Yes, there has been some success in
Afghanistan but that's a long way from Chicago O'Hare."
years, the industry has tried to introduce drones to the domestic sky, but
the limited track record of the aircraft failed to catch federal attention.
Emboldened by military success in Afghanistan, industry groups have recently
begun talking with the Federal Aviation Administration, hoping to turn
greater public awareness into regulatory approval.
supported the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) by the U.S. military,
and I believe that the potential applications for this technology in the
area of homeland defense are quite compelling," Sen. John W. Warner
(R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a prepared
statement.
federal agencies, acknowledging that there could also be privacy concerns --
drones are used by the military for surveillance in a way that might not be
acceptable to American civilians at home. "We must . . . meet our
national security needs without unduly sacrificing the privacy rights of our
citizens," Warner said.
sporadically over the United States for testing. Flights require FAA
approval, which sometimes comes with the caveat that the drones stick to a
carefully constructed flight path that keeps them out of regular air traffic
and be trailed by a "chase aircraft" -- a piloted plane that ensures that it
stays clear of other traffic. The FAA has about 30 certificates outstanding
allowing such flights in the past year, although some certificates cover
more than one flight.
how it would regulate such uses, said Alton Scott, manager of special
operations, air traffic planning and procedures.
aircraft can do, can be done with a remotely [operated] aircraft," Scott
said. "I think one day we will get to that point . . . but the rules and
regulations have to be put in place" first.
danger.
vehicles," said Carr of the controllers group. "It is not the unmanned
drone that I am worried about; it's the commercial aircraft that has to
operate in the same airspace with 200 people on board."
century, and for the past 10 years has deployed them in combat missions in
areas including the Persian Gulf and the Balkans. A Predator drone, which
can linger for 20 hours over a battlefield beaming back information to
commanders on the ground, recently fired on suspected al Qaeda terrorists in
Yemen, killing six. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has labeled them a
"transformational" weapons systems, ensuring them a place in his defense
budget.
wingspan. The military is also experimenting with mini-drones that can be
carried in a backpack, but they have not been deployed yet, according to
Teal Group Inc., a research firm specializing in the defense industry.
aircraft, industry officials said. High-endurance drones, which can fly for
days or weeks at a time, would be cheaper than a manned plane that has to be
periodically brought down to refuel or change pilots, said Daryl Davidson of
the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
operators on the ground, lowering personnel costs, he said. "A
comparable-sized crew can operate multiple [drones] instead of operating one
manned aircraft," Davidson said. But without pilots aboard, drones can't
make the kinds of decisions pilots make every day, critics say. And they
say drones were not designed to barrel through U.S. airspace, which can
contain more than 8,000 planes at the busiest times.
aircraft rarely venture, that would not be enough to satisfy some safety
concerns, critics say. "They have to come up and they have to go down"
passing through regular air traffic, said Warren Morningstar, a spokesman
for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
the Kosovo war, 10 times as many drones were lost as manned vehicles,
according to a report from Teal Group Inc.. Three of the Air Force's six
Global Hawks, which cost about $35 million each, have crashed. About half
of the 50 much smaller, $4.5 million Predators, which can get closer to
potential targets to send pictures and coordinates, have been lost,
including some that were shot down, an Air Force spokesman said.
Admittedly some of this is due to combat action, but accidents are also a
major source of loss," said Steven Zaloga, a weapons expert with Teal Group.
Such losses couldn't be sustained in the civilian market, he said.
addressed. The drones cannot detect aircraft and avoid them automatically,
said Scott Dann, a program manager of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
Inc., "but that's something we're working on."
would be no way to guide it to a safe landing, Dann said. "The technology
has improved leaps and bounds over the last 10 years, but flying over Los
Angeles or New York is another ballgame," he said.
regulations are keeping the drone flights rare and are inhibiting the
industry's growth. It typically takes two months to get FAA approval and
"chase aircraft" are costly, industry officials complain.
need to have free and ready access to national airspace for this to work,"
said Neil Kacena, deputy director of advanced development programs for
Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin.
Mirage, Calif., but when one files more than three miles from its base, the
company must launch a manned plane to follow it, adding hundreds of dollars
an hour to the cost of tests, company officials said. And although the
industry acknowledges some of the safety concerns that the air traffic
controllers raise, they would eventually like to have the same freedom as
small aircraft -- to just file a flight plan and take off.
a Boeing spokesman. "Ultimately we need to get there for there to be a real
market opportunity."
five-year program involving industry, NASA, the FAA and the Defense
Department. (The controllers group says commercial aircraft now cruise
between 29,000 to 41,000 feet, and some jets can go higher.) Under the
proposal, the FAA would initially establish stringent rules that govern the
flights, but grant wider access, said spokeswoman Karen Robbins. Over
several years, the rules would fall away, leaving a streamlined version
similar to those that govern piloted planes, she said.
operate the drones from the ground be specially certified and that the
planes themselves be certified as safe, Robbins said. The FAA would
probably issue detailed rules governing takeoffs and landings, she added.
similar restraints. Plans call for the Coast Guard to add a drone that
lifts vertically from a ship deck by 2006, said John Williams, deputy chief
in the Office of Aviation Forces. Another version that would take off from
shore and patrol the coastline would arrive in 2016.
Paulison, air systems integration manager for Deepwater, a planned overhaul
of the Coast Guard's fleet. "It is certainly part of our acquisition plan
to ensure that they are reliable for our operations and safe to fly over
populated areas."
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