FAA under pressure to open US skies to drones

[Chris V]

Story here:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100614/D9GB009G0.html

[Joe Copalman]

I'm just not sure this is a good idea.  No optical sensor on an umanned platform will have the same 360º range of motion that a set of eyeballs on a human operator will have, and no image on a screen will have the resolution or perceptible depth of what the human eye can see. 

Also, I don't like the idea of police having a perpetual surveillance presence in the skies above our cities.

Speaking of which - anybody watch the final season of 24 and think "The FAA would never sign off on this crap" with regard to armed Reapers operating over NYC?

[Jay Beckman]

I'd be more "comfortable" sharing the sky with a UAV that's big enough to carry a transponder and can work in the same fashion as manned aircraft in the national airspace system.  The ones that would scare me to death as a pilot are the UAVs that state or local authorities would want to use.  The FAA has already had to slap the LA County Sherrif's pee pee and the LAPD for trying to put up drones.

We've all seen pictures of what an eight to 12-pound bundle of feathers and flesh can do to a small airplane so think about the same weight with several times more motive energy and tipped with a kevlar prop and metal engine!