If you're a guy of a certain age then you're familiar with remote control aircraft. For hobbyist they've gotten bigger, certainly more advanced but thats to be expected with the march of time.
What is unexpected is that any remote control airplane, helicopter or even tank (yeah there are some fantastic remote control armored vehicles...some quite large) that you mount a Go-Pro camera on suddenly becomes a drone!
But this is the part that has me concerned...
Obama said drones have the potential to empower people in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago, but the federal government is trying to catch up with the technology’s progression in order to enact laws that ensure safety and privacy. He said a goal in his final years as president "is seeing if we can start providing some sort of framework that ensures that we get the good and minimize the bad.”Just wow.
A worldwide hobby is going to probably bite the dust because it was militarized and then regulated out of existence.
I believe in a strong defense but joys are being crushed in order to keep nuts, perverts and fools from abusing something that has brought joy to many.
And that sucks.
i dabbled with RC aircraft and those big wheeled funny RC cars , my question is his : what kind of security measure for white house to anticipate a terrorist individual or group using these toys to attack the white house enmasse ? using explosives as payload ..
ReplyDeletethe RC helicopter version do not need runways and they can easily be deployed anywhere around the target area..
these wonderful technologies and toys that so fun in the hand of civilians, can be misused for terror attacks by creative and clever terrorist. The image of terrorist as a fanatical breaded guy with gleaming eyes full of hate is just caricatural, never underestimate your potential adversary.
2016 Defense Budget is out, no money for either Super Hornet or Growler.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess this is the end of road for the Super Hornet.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-27/boeing-s-sub-hunting-poseidon-gets-a-boost-in-pentagon-s-budget
Thanks Sol... I was thinking about buying an mid-entry level drone... Now I HAVE to get one before they're inevitably outlawed or restricted to the point of uselessness.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly the FAA has to approve drone use but farmers, for one example, make extensive use of them to keep an eye on crops on the south forty acres etc. Meanwhile hobbyists can go to HobbyZone and Obama can stick it.
ReplyDeleteLast I read, they were still restricted to non-commercial applications and limited to Class G (uncontrolled) airspace. The problem is that over most of the country Class G is fairly limited and non-pilots probably have no idea of what it even is. The FAA (usually one of the more reasonable govt. agencies in my limited experience) in some places is trying to enforce aviation regulations with people who have no idea that they are violating them. They need to define what counts as a "drone" and they are going to have create and enforce standards of construction and operation for the different classes of drone ops(at least commercial ones). Just learning what counts as commercial or private or air carrier operation can be college class or so worth of info and regulations and case studies. Once they decide what the rules are then they will have to come up with at least a written certification test probably to ensure people know what they are supposed to do or not do with them. I'd rather that the public never got their hands on the damned things but I suppose the cat's out of the bag.
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