Commercial Future for UAVs?

Remote controlled objects have had great success throughout the last century, particularly with kids under the age of 15.  Over the last few decades, with a little imagination, innovation, and plenty of engineering brains at work, we are now in an age that, in essence, kids have grown up and are going into jobs that encompass their childhood loves.   There are many that question the ethics and use of the drones and other Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the military and many more that question whether or not they belong in the commercial industry.

UAVs have seen a lot of action flying the US-Mexico border, supporting Customs and Border Patrol, and plenty of action flying missions in the Middle East, with the military starting a transition into forming complete squadrons.  The commercial side of UAVs is something that the many don't understand.  The main push for the entrance of UAVs into commercial airspace came last year when the Senate approved the $63 Billion Reauthorization Act, providing the FAA with four years of funding for UAVs, NexGen, as well as airport improvement.  While the UAVs won't enter into US airspaces until 2015, there are still a lot of questions as to the safety of drone aircrafts.  With the advancement in NexGen, however, the idea of drones entering the airspace may be more palatable.  NexGen will introduce a new way of flight control and organization and the introduction of UAVs would make sense solely because of these improvements. (Waggstaff, 2012).

The safe flying of drones is not the only concerns raised with the the idea of UAVs, but it is one of the largest.  Training is probably the most important aspect of the safe operation of UAVs.  With the idea of drones being made for commercial use, schools throughout the United States are now offering courses specifically for UAV operation.  While initiative is great, in all my research, I have not been able to find a standard by which operators would control and fly UAVs.  Even throughout the military, different services have different training and varying operating procedures.  When taking the human out of the air and throwing him/her into a room with a control stick, one would think that the first thing to do would be to develop a standard or preliminary guidelines.  In 2008, the FAA issued the Interim Operational Approval Guidance 08-11, which states that the pilot in command will be required to abide by 14 CFR 19.3 (Responsibility and Authority of the Pilot in Command).  In the FAA's FAQs, the question was asked, "Are FAA issued pilot certificates required to operate civil UAS?"  In response, they said that additional training would be required for UA operations.  If that is the case, shouldn't there be a push for a standardization of training?

In all, there are still a lot of unanswered questions when the topic of UAVs is brought up.  While there are still a couple years until we actually see drones flying in with the commercial traffic, there should be an proactive emphasis on the safety and training of UAVs.

Sources

Waggstaff, K. (2012, February 8). Congress paves way for unmanned drones in U.S. commercial airspace. Retrieved from: http://techland.time.com/2012/02/08/congress-paves-way-for-unmanned-drones-in-u-s-commercial-airspace/

Federal Aviation Administration. (2008, March 13). Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations in the U.S. National Airspace System. Retrieved from: http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/reg/media/uas_guidance08-01.pdf