Think ‘RoboCop’ with wings. But it isn’t only police departments that will be flying drones through increasingly un-manned vehicle friendly skies as the FAA looks at bringing regulations up to date with current technology.
“There’s an industry that wants to sell hundreds and thousands of these drones all over the country, and before they’re up in the sky, I thought it was a good idea to say, here are the rules in Florida,” Florida Sen. Joe Negron, who sponsored the bill, told the Miami Herald in April.
The days of unmanned vehicles whizzing overhead are drawing near.
The war games are coming home.
As for military usage, what once was a $667 million in 2002 is now over $3.9 billion and “the number of drones in military service has shot from 167 to nearly 7,500 .” And that’s just the beginning. Civilians can now get a Master’s Degree in the art, or is that, science of drones; meanwhile, the civilian applications are already staggering.
Florida college to offer masters degree in drone warfare
“We’re trying to prepare our students so they’re ready to operate at the highest levels,” said Dan Macchiarella, department chair of aeronautical sciences at Embry-Riddle.
But as with so many things that begin with a military purpose, these unmanned vehicles are coming in all shapes and sizes — from full-sized planes to mini helicopters less than 2 feet across — to play a role in the civilian world.
From monitoring wildlife, to cutting grass, one can only begin to imagine the various applications once new rules are in place that allow for commercial usage. The privacy implications are obvious and are bound to make any new laws or regulations hot button issues at both the state and federal levels.
“It’s going to grow exponentially once the law catches up,” said Josh Olds, an Embry-Riddle graduate and drone flight instructor at Embry-Riddle who worked with government contractors overseas before returning to help run the school’s flight simulation lab.