Drone On: Will FAA Open U.S. Skies to Unmanned Aircraft?
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 14:30
in Mathematics & Economics
Drone strikes have proved an effective, if controversial, weapon in the hunt for al Qaeda operatives in the Middle East and beyond . The use of such unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) domestically for civilian jobs such as U.S. border patrol, weather research, pipeline inspection or even real estate photography has lagged, however, because of a cumbersome Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) case-based approval process. This could change within the next few years as the FAA considers relaxing some restrictions on certain small UAS that would allow them to share the national airspace system with manned aircraft. [More]