Discussion for article #224771
“The Federal Aviation Administration hasn’t set standards for certifying the safety of civilian drones, and efforts to provide them regular access to U.S. skies face significant hurdles”
I’m sure that after a drone takes down a helicopter or commercial aircraft will be soon enough to deal with it.
So how big was this drone? Was an NYPD helicopter threatened by something smaller than a chicken? This looks like a cop who wanted to create an incident, not any kind of threat.
I fly multicopters almost daily - any of the ones I have, or even a smaller Phantom, could easily cause a crash if one of the heli rotors hit it. The LiPo batteries used can explode.
I am anything but a fan of the NYPD, but whoever was piloting this multirotor was being really stupid - if you see a police helo, land your craft or get the hell out of the way!
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The FAA is dragging it’s feet in a big way.
They are talking 10 years, now!
In 2012 Congress decided to prod the agency with the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, ordering it to “safely accelerate” its rulemaking process and setting a September 2015 deadline for release of a plan. Although rule-making for small, unmanned devices could begin before the close of this year, even the inspector general of the Transportation Department has concluded that the FAA “will not meet the September 2015 deadline for safe (drone) integration and it is uncertain when this will be achieved.”
Meanwhile, an agency official reportedly has warned that the entire rulemaking process could take up to a decade.
“The fact that they’re saying that full-blown integration with complete regulations will take another 10 years is kind of frustrating,” says professor Matt Waite, founder of the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Meanwhile, in other countries around the world, multicopters are being used for all sorts of useful civilian applications in agriculture, real estate, SAR, etc. The USA is way behind on this front.
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Obviously, some kind of regulation is needed to prevent either civilian or military drones from endangering human-occupied aircraft.
If the rotors hit the drone, there would be absolutely zero issue. The danger for a helicopter from a drone would be the drone getting drawn into the engine intake and causing a flameout.
Zero issue? I kind of doubt that. If fluffy flying bundles of feathers can do THIS, I am pretty sure a 8 pound collection of metal, carbon fiber, and exploding batteries could cause an “issue”.
Well maybe, but thats really not the best approach. Commercial aircraft jet engines have to pass the “frozen chicken” test, but birds can still take down a plane, big or small, just ask Sully.