Drone tests may soon be carried out over a city near you. In response to Breitbart News queries about the limitations on the location of so-called “drone zones” – zones specifically designated to test commercial and military drones under Federal Aviation Administration regulations – FAA Pacific Division Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor told Breitbart News, “I don’t believe anything is ruled out.” This means that even heavily populated areas will be considered for possible drone zones.
Gregor added, “The Congressional mandate states the FAA must consider ‘geographic and climatic diversity’ and ‘the location of ground infrastructure and research needs’ in selecting [unmanned aircraft system (UAS)] test sites … The FAA does not believe the planned test sites need to be identical. It is possible that the size of the sites as well as the research work performed will vary from site to site.”
Several states have been competing for the billions of dollars in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development that will surely follow the FAA’s establishment of drone zones. These locations include California, Nevada, Iowa, and Ohio. As of Thursday morning, California Governor Jerry Brown’s office had not responded to requests for comment. Overall, the FAA is expected to clear six drone zones.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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