From what I understand the FAA considers the terms UAV and UAS
to be different. A UAS is an unmanned aircraft system, which fills the
spectrum of anything that might be able to fly in the air. A UAS can be
anything from an actual UAV to a toy helicopter that has the power to reach
high altitudes. For the sake of confusion I wanted to establish this at the
beginning of this post because I will be using the term UAS apposed to UAV for a majority of the post.
Some examples of how UASs are being used by civilians would be
in hurricane detection by flying a UAV that’s so large into a storm that it is
able to withstand the wind and actually send back crucial information about the
storm that is developing. Another way UASs are being used by civilians is in
agriculture. In areas that are inaccessible to traditional farm equipment UAVs
are also used to spread fertilizers and/or pesticides across fields. Lastly
UASs are also being used in 3-D mapping, this application of UASs can be done
by drones that take thousands of pictures to actually create a 3 dimensional
picture of the landscape (Handwerk, 2013). Section 333 of the FAA modernization
and reform act of 2012 regulates these civilian uses of UASs (FAA, 2015).
Section 333 grants the Secretary of Transportation the authority to determine whether
an airworthiness certificate is required for a UAS to operate safely in the
National Airspace System (FAA, 2015). Civilians can get around this regulation if they apply for a
Section 333 exemption, which can allow the civilian to basically not follow the
rules in Section 333.
I think that UASs can integrate into the NAS, there just needs
to be much more strict regulations and clearer definitions toward different
types of UASs. There could be special airways in which UASs could travel, for
example the airways that the military uses for different training flights. UASs could
have an assigned airway for different times of the day to “free up” airspaces
at other times of the day for GA aircraft. The only problems I could see with
this is that companies would want to push the envelope and not fly airways or
initiate flights not during approved hours. Another problem would be pilots and
them not wanting to potentially crash an airplane only because a UAV got sucked
up into their turbine and having to put the airplane down. The integration of
UASs would put much more congestion into our already crowded airspace system
potentially causing more harm than good.
The use of UAVs in the military has helped tremendously in so
many ways but to name a few, search and rescue, ground surveillance, munitions
drops, and can be used in biological, chemical or radioactive conditions as
well (Military UAS applications, n.d.). UAVs can be sent into a contaminated
area, identify the enemy’s locations and can be fired upon with one machine. We
are able to win battles without even sending in troops, which saves countless
lives in the long run. I think that the militaries integration has been greatly
efficient for the fact that there is no way to put a price on a human life. The
more troops we can save in the live of duty serving their country the better no
matter what the cost. Are the UAVs expensive? Yes, I’m positive that the U.S.
has spent into the hundreds of thousands of dollars toward this research and
development of UAVs. Like I said earlier you cannot truly put a price on a
human life.
There
is a job opening in California piloting UAVs for a John Deere dealership here.
There is a UAV/ mass data group sales manager position around Illinois and the
Wisconsin area here. There is also a UAV job more geared toward the engineering
and design here.
FAA. (2015, August). Section 333. Federal Aviation Administration.
Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/
Handwerk, B. (2013, December). 5
surprising drone uses (besides amazon delivery). National Geographic. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/12/131202-drone-uav-uas-amazon-octocopter-bezos-science-aircraft-unmanned-robot/
Military UAS applications. (n.d.). Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association.
Retrieved from https://www.uavs.org/military
I agree with your thoughts on using UAVs in the military to save human lives. We can always replace a UAV but as you stated there is no price for a human life.
ReplyDeleteI was unable to find a job listing for a drone pilot. It's interesting seeing the John Deere job and being a drone pilot might not be super awful. Or it would.. who knows.
ReplyDeleteUAV's in the military are of utmost importance, the role they fill in the military is much much different than the role they would fill in the civilian sector and do not particularly like the idea of them buzzing around in the near future.
ReplyDeleteDo UAVs save lives when used in a military role? Absolutely. Have they saved a lot of ground troops with strikes against the enemy? Without a doubt. On the other hand, there is a large potential for collateral damage in using them. Even if the drone is able to put ordnance in the picture window of the target building, there will still be potentially large numbers of casualties. I think they serve a specific role in the military, but in my opinion, there is still no better solution than a well planned, well executed raid by a special operations team.
ReplyDeleteirishiwereflying" blog, could you please provide more details? I'm happy to assist you with information related to UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or any other topic you're interested in. Let me know how you'd like to proceed!
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UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), commonly known as drones, are aircraft systems operated without a human pilot onboard. They are controlled remotely or autonomously through pre-programmed flight plans or advanced AI systems. UAVs are widely used in both civilian and military applications, thanks to their versatility and ability to perform tasks in environments challenging or unsafe for humans.
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