NEW ARTICLE SERIES, Drones: Some innovative use, Part 3 of 3
Some innovative uses
- The US Customs and Border Protection Agency has made an innovative use of these UAVs and managed to arrest thousands of illegal immigrants while making a severe dent in the smuggling of Marijuana and other drugs.
- The Canadian government is utilizing Drones for surveillance of the Arctic region for protecting its Arctic sovereignty, and
- The Hezbollah in Lebanon is utilizing a UAV to better organize its raids on Israel.
Some history
The first known use of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was in 1849 when the Austrians bombarded the Italian city of Venice with a contraption made out of balloons; as far as the results are concerned, they were mixed.
Drones are slightly different in that they are capable of being guided to any destination and being returned back.
The Drones, as we know them today, were the natural successors of Radioplanes used in the 2nd world war; the US Army got these developed for the purpose of reconnaissance missions. But, they were simply not developed enough.
During the Vietnam War there was a huge rethink in the US army because of the shooting down of its aircrafts. Till that time the drones were piggy-backed on transport planes; accomplishment of their mission (since the battery life of Drones have always been short), they were dropped by parachutes into Taiwanese territory and picked up from there.
However much the North Vietnamese Air force tried, only six Drones could be shot down by them. The capability to return and the length of each flight being the constraints efforts continued to overcome these hurdles. The attention also shifted to the use of Solar power to enable longer flights.
However, in the Iraq war as also in Afghanistan, the Predator by General Atomics was a huge success; the AAI Aerosonde successfully cross the Atlantic in a flight that was finished in 26 Hrs.
The use of the Drones that the world woke up to, was the utilization of these innocent-looking gizmos for raining death and mayhem in a third-world country.
While satellites and Drones would scour the countryside in Afghanistan and Pakistan collecting locations of suspect movements and terrorists, the Drones would be directed to launch devastation on those sites with pinpoint accuracy.
Our intention is not to present these details with any bias or segregation of those strikes as justified or unjustified; this is only a statement of fact with emphasis on the Drone as a machine.
The struggle to make both ends meet for the Drones was a long and protracted one but it is not the end of the road; there are so many hurdles to overcome that only time and the indomitable spirit of man will be able to overhaul.
Some likely problems
- Where will the delivered package be kept? There are so many questions with regards to the envisaged steps by Amazon etc
- Will pilots be there?
- Navigation between buildings will be a problem,
- Drones plying on gas are very noisy and cause excessive pollution; this issue is likely to explode.
- Though every problem creates an opportunity for someone, there is a real danger of crashes and mid-air failures; the regulators will not be able to provide a flight plan for all the drone owners once their numbers increase, and
- Which also means that the number of such machines will have to be limited with specific flight plans and timings for each; this will be a hurdle for the Amazons and the Walmarts.
The regulations will have to include provisions for the following:
- Spread of the points of delivery,
- Problems like birds, overhead wires, signal jammers and lightening,
- Drone and cargo specifications,
- Drone Licensing, Insurance, Pilot’s licensing, Parking of helicopters, facilities for repairs and maintenance,
- Noise pollution control, Privacy control rules, Security rules, Staff trainings and
- Police and Public awareness.
What needs to be done
Though the FAA has finalized rules to regulate the operations of Drones, there is a need to start small and develop it from there. The FAA seems to be ill-equipped to come up with an Alladin’s lamp to conjure up solutions to the bevy of details that they will have to provide for.
The skill and attention to detail with which this issue has to be handled, seems to be out of the reach of the FAA which already has its hands full; any minor mismanagement can lead to a veritable fiasco.
Hence, the FAA should not be burdened with additional responsibility; a brand new organization needs to be set up for this seemingly small responsibility.
What we need is a proper mix of aviation experts, Civic authorities, Business leaders and some dynamic operations managers who need to put their heads together to come up with a completely new system that answers all the questions and hits the nail on the head.
Author: Umrao Singh
