I’m pretty sure the footage is not from the drone, the buildings in the foreground are too stable for that. That said, I recently attended a drone seminar/workshop in the US. Came away with the following impression:
a) these things are waaaayyy more capable than I had realized. On the top end you can program them to fly a very intricate course (say in cinematography) and they can repeat this over and over again. Operator only watches the thing do it’s thing.
b) I wouldn’t worry too much about them getting out of control. Even the mid-level ones now have a homing function. Essentially, the thing flies itself back home to the starting point if signal reception from the controller is lost.
c) however, what I DO worry about is the attitude of the people flying these things. They are possessed by a holier-than-thou attitude that is frightening. And, of course, either totally oblivious to the damage they can inflict on an airplane or couldn’t care less. Got me into some discussions when I pointed out that should their machines and I meet in the sky I’d be dead.
Even if nobody gets harmed: The price of a large turbofan engine (e.g. RR Trent 700) is in excess of $35M. If only 10 percent of that sum is required to repair the damage, the owner of the drone who caused it will spend the rest of his life paying that bill (if he can be traced).
(if he can be traced).
Herein lies the problem. He’s not likely to come forward and once the thing is destroyed there’s no way of tracing the owner.
once the thing is destroyed there’s no way of tracing the owner
If something serious happened, you want a bet?
His DNA will be all over it, and the GPS program will still be in some chip in there. That will contain useful data on where to start looking, starting with the launch location…
His DNA will be all over it,
All over what? If the drone travelled through the hot section, I doubt you could do a lot with the remainders of the DNA
That will contain useful data on where to start looking, starting with the launch location…
Nope. If the thing crashes into an airplane it will be blown to smithereens and the chip will be somewhere. The words ‘needle’ and ‘haystack’ come to mind…
What might be useful, provided it survives, would be the camera.
As with many things, if you bring down an A380 someone will probably find a way of pinning the blame however small and overcooked the bits are. If you bring down a TB20 there will be a limit as to how hard they search.
There’s already a fair amount of regulatory work in this area, e.g. NPA 2014-09
Some idiot has been flying at over 10,000ft in the southern part of The Netherlands
I honestly believe that these will become common place. I think in 10 years, we’ll all have a “household drone” which will be a significant and expensive piece of equipment.
Here with all the major supermarkets you can order your shopping online and either have it delivered to you or you can collect it. I imagine that’s the same in most countries now. The problem with deliveries is that you have to wait at home to receive it. Not convenient if you’ve other things to do. The problem with collection is that you still have to go to the supermarket to collect it. Imagine if you could order your groceries online and simply send your own drone to collect it at a time that suited you.
Imagine you get to the airport and realise you forgot your headset, or the office and forgot some stuff you need. No need to drive home. Just call home and get your wife/kids/whoever is at home, to put it in the drone and send it to you, and you have it in a few minutes.
Motorbike couriers will be out of business. Each office will just send the documents with their office drone.
I think in 10 years, these things will cost €3-5K, be capable of carrying a payload of 10-20kg, be highly regulated and every home will have one. They are simply too useful to remain toys. And that’s just to support our busy lives. For those who are unable to leave home due to sickness or ill health, these will be a godsend for simple things like collecting prescriptions from the pharmacy.
GA will have to accommodate it, or be banned. Most likely they will be limited 500ft, and GA is prohibited from below 500ft except within 2 nm of an airport, and the drones must keep out of that area.
That’s my prediction. Though what is that saying? Making predictions is very dangerous, especially about the future? Be interesting to look back at this in 10 years ;)
Colm
