UAVs

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