November 25, 2003
UAV Navigates Airspace
An article on UAV's obviating the need for pilots. While I love UAV's, I don't think that we will be removing the pilots from the cockpits of commercial aircraft anytime soon. What I would love to see is a normalization of the FAA's directives such that the language was changed from "See and avoid" to "Detect and avoid." That way both UAV's and regular aircraft can operate in the same airspace.
Most fears center on their safety for civilian use, such as monitoring traffic over urban areas.
"They don't have a pilot to get them out of trouble," notes Steve Zaloga, an analyst with Teal Group, an aerospace and defense research firm. "The local TV station isn't going to be happy to have a million-dollar plane crash into traffic or someone's house. It's going to be a hazard and it's going to be a cost issue."
The truth is that many UAV's have crashed, but most of them due to weather or landing issues. It's still unlikely that they will just fall out of the sky.
Posted by elkaim at November 25, 2003 3:29 PM