Saturday, October 15, 2016

UAV's have almost unlimited use in our country when it comes to civilian use. They range from business to pleasure and everything in between. The main way I see them being used is for applications in photography and filmography. They are amazing tools for surveying of any kind. They are used everyday in movie productions across the country because of there versatility, durability, and low cost. Reality companies love them because they can quickly get a birds eye view of property and good quality pictures for a relatively low cost. Instead of hiring a pilot to fly overhead in a 172 and take pictures they can fly a drone with a camera on it. Drones are basically putting any kind of helicopter or airplane filming company out of business because UAV's can operate at a fraction of the cost and are safer. Amazon has even started a program to possibly input drones into their delivery system.  They are currently regulated by the FAA through part 107 that was recently issued (Musunaga 2016). There are rules about UAV's that the FAA has issued such as "unmanned aircraft mus weigh less than 55lbs"(FAA 2016). The new rules cover many topics from airspace usage to line of sight rules and applications.

I definitely foresee UAV's integrating into the NAS. They have to because they are growing in popularity and demand from consumers.In order for them to be integrated into the NAS a special set of rules and regulations will have to be drawn up and implemented by the FAA and there already are some. The FAA enforces these new rules with inspectors supposedly although we've had such a short time to observe we really don't know how this will work out. One of the problems that will arise is tracking and registering all of the UAV's. It's a lot of paperwork and fees that no one really wants to complete or pay for. Enforcement will also be a struggle because UAV's can be flown from so many places. Its not like the FAA can monitor all the potential locations drones can be flown like they can with airplanes because they're limited to airports usually.

Military strategy has changed drastically since the implementation of UAV's. We can now fire missiles from remotely piloted drones and the pilot is completely safe and free from harm even if the aircraft is shot down or crashes. UAV's integration into the military has been incredibly efficient financially but has raised some ethical issues. Drones cost less then F18's to manufatcure, operate, and train pilots to fly. Plus they don't put an American pilot in danger when they go down. The fact is that integrating drones into the military has saved American lives. However some say that it's ethically wrong to send a machine to kill a human target or enemy. Some say our military is more trigger happy and more prone to confrontation because of our use of unmanned aircraft instead manned aircraft. One of their arguments is that  if our own human lives aren't at risk then we care less about the possibility of collateral damage. I personally don't have any ethical issues with UAV's integrated into the military. If anything I think we're more ethically efficient because we don't have to put American lives in danger to kill enemy targets. We can also do more reconnaissance  with less human sacrifice which is a huge improvement from flying SR-71's half way around the world to take some pictures that lack in quality compared to today's photos taken by unmanned drones.

In the future there will be an abundance of UAV related jobs. I was unable to find a direct link to a job posting but I've have heard of numerous job opportunities that have to do with surveying property for realtors. I've even had a realtor friend of mine personally offer me a job opportunity if I had my own drone with an on board camera. I have also heard of job opportunities at my mom's civil engineering firm to inspect bridges and buildings with drones. Another potential job in high demand will be teaching these drone classes to non private pilot people that want to get their commercial drone operating certificate for work related reasons. I have a cousin that works for an agricultural company that was payed to get his certificate so that he could legally inspect fields with drones commercially.

References
https://www.faa.gov/uas/ retrieved on 10-13-16, FAA
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-drone-rules-20160829-snap-htmlstory.html retrieved on 10-13-16, Samantha Masunaga

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