Drones Multiplying

The Washington Post reports that the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones is on the rise. But just not where you might think. Oh sure, they have become very common in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Post is reporting another hotspot: within the United States.

From the comfort of a control center at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, pilot Mark Pestana will gun the throttle of his unmanned aircraft, pull back on the stick and gently guide his plane into the sky next month.

But he will not be using the high-tech modified Predator B drone to seek out and kill insurgents in Iraq or Taliban in Afghanistan.

Instead, his mission will be to comb the western United States for forest fires and to relay infrared images and photographs of the blazes to firefighters on the ground.

Routinely seen and heard in the skies above Iraq and Afghanistan, drones are being flown in growing numbers in the United States on a variety of missions, including probing hurricanes and spotting illegal immigrants crossing the border.

The increasing use of unmanned vehicles, which range in size from those that can fit in your hand to twin-engine jets, has met resistance from federal regulators struggling to safely incorporate the devices into the nation's airspace. The drones have also raised fundamental questions about the nature of flight and what it means to be a pilot.

The Federal Aviation Administration is allowing unmanned vehicles to fly on a case-by-case basis only after regulators have been convinced that the aircraft will be operated safely and be confined to specific segments of airspace.

This year, regulators expect to grant more than 130 waivers to government agencies to use unmanned flying machines, up from 64 two years ago. The FAA has granted private companies nine certificates to operate drones in the United States this year — a total of 13 have been granted since 2005 — so they can test their products, regulators said.

Note that they are calling the MQ-9 by its previous moniker of Predator-B, not by the new designation of "Reaper". I can see where there are a lot of situations that the UAVs would be very useful for. I can also see the problem that the FAA has on its hands, however. The skies above the United States are very crowded. People really noticed that after all flights were grounded following 9/11, didn't they? But there have been some real problems with drones:

During the rescue efforts on Mount Hood, the small drones crashed 11 times because of high winds, according to the FAA. In April of last year, a Predator B that was patrolling the border for customs officials crashed near homes in Arizona. Investigators said the plane's pilot accidentally shut off its fuel flow.

FAA officials are saying that they have no intention of lifting the case-by-case review they are doing right now unless and until the technology improves to the point where drone operators can detect and avoid other aircraft, just as real pilots have to. It is important to remember that drones are really only in their infancy, too. They have come a long way in a very short time, but they still have a long way to go. But this article should give the tinfoil hat brigade the willies. They're watching us.