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I expect that eventually we'll have a system where you tell your drone where to go and it then files a flight plan with the FAA electronically. The FAA compare

by elihu 9y ago

I expect that eventually we'll have a system where you tell your drone where to go and it then files a flight plan with the FAA electronically. The FAA compares it with all the other drone flight plans and various right-of-way and noise mitigation rules and sends back a route. Hobbyist (unregistered) drones could in theory file a flight plan anonymously if FAA policy allows that. Anonymous drones might have some restrictions. Any drone flying in a city or near an airport without a flight plan is a nuisance, and it's chased down by city or airport-owned security drones, captured, and confiscated. (This pre-supposes a certain degree of technical sophistication on the part of the FAA. If they don't have the ability to build this, probably some vendor or drone manufacturer will and then operate it on behalf of the FAA as a third party.) I anticipate a lot of arguments in coming years between land owners and drone operators about exactly where the drone right-of-ways ought to be and whether drone operators ought to pay land owners to fly over their property...

romwell 9y ago
I don't think anything like that will ever happen as long as you can fly your own Cessna. There's also nothing in your system (as stated) that will actually enforce the drones to do that. Even assuming you outlaw all the other drones, what's going to stop a criminal with a rogue/modified drone? Such a system will only harm law-abiding people. >I anticipate a lot of arguments in coming years between land owners and drone operators about exactly where the drone right-of-ways ought to be and whether drone operators ought to pay land owners to fly over their property... We have already solved this problem when aircraft were invented.
- elihu 9y ago
  Large aircraft aren't generally allowed to fly low over cities unless they're taking off or landing from an airport. If a drone is going to be taking off and landing in residential areas, it'll necessarily be flying a lot lower. (I expect a lot of current drones might run out of battery before they could even reach 1000+ feet, where regular planes fly.) There's a lot of empty space in the sky, it's not hard to keep drones and Cessnas away from each other. Laws won't stop people from flying drones where they shouldn't, but if caught they could be confiscated or the operators fined. If nuisance drones are a problem, we'll need "police drones" to chase them down and disable them. Sort of like how FCC regulations can't stop me from broadcasting a radio station on a frequency I'm not allowed to transmit on if I'm really determined to do it, but they can locate me, fine me, and generally give me strong incentives not to do it again.
dismantlethesun 9y ago
I think drones in the USA have restrictions on their gps so they can't fly over airports.
- romwell 9y ago
  Define a "drone". It's a word of limited utility these days, because it does not mean "autonomous aircraft" anymore, and gets used for anything that's R/C and flying. My quadcopters don't even have GPS, for instance.

by elihu 9y ago

romwell 9y ago

I don't think anything like that will ever happen as long as you can fly your own Cessna. There's also nothing in your system (as stated) that will actually enforce the drones to do that. Even assuming you outlaw all the other drones, what's going to stop a criminal with a rogue/modified drone? Such a system will only harm law-abiding people. >I anticipate a lot of arguments in coming years between land owners and drone operators about exactly where the drone right-of-ways ought to be and whether drone operators ought to pay land owners to fly over their property... We have already solved this problem when aircraft were invented.

elihu 9y ago
Large aircraft aren't generally allowed to fly low over cities unless they're taking off or landing from an airport. If a drone is going to be taking off and landing in residential areas, it'll necessarily be flying a lot lower. (I expect a lot of current drones might run out of battery before they could even reach 1000+ feet, where regular planes fly.) There's a lot of empty space in the sky, it's not hard to keep drones and Cessnas away from each other. Laws won't stop people from flying drones where they shouldn't, but if caught they could be confiscated or the operators fined. If nuisance drones are a problem, we'll need "police drones" to chase them down and disable them. Sort of like how FCC regulations can't stop me from broadcasting a radio station on a frequency I'm not allowed to transmit on if I'm really determined to do it, but they can locate me, fine me, and generally give me strong incentives not to do it again.

dismantlethesun 9y ago

I think drones in the USA have restrictions on their gps so they can't fly over airports.

romwell 9y ago
Define a "drone". It's a word of limited utility these days, because it does not mean "autonomous aircraft" anymore, and gets used for anything that's R/C and flying. My quadcopters don't even have GPS, for instance.