Wed, May 02, 2012
One Police Chief Says Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Are Coming, Likely Soon
If you're old enough to remember the CB radio craze, you'll remember the term “there's a bear in the air” ... meaning an airplane was conducting traffic surveillance, often with radar. Well, according to one Beltway area police chief, we may be returning to the days of “bears in the air” or as others have called it, Orwell's "1984" with Big Brother watching.
Speaking on Washington, D.C., radio station WTOP's "Ask the Chief" program Monday, Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer, said "Drones will certainly have a purpose and a reason to be in this region in the next ... coming years." While the chief sees drones as an aid to traffic monitoring, it should be noted that we reported here on Aero-News some weeks ago that a US citizen is awaiting his day in court after he was arrested by police aided by the use of a drone to pinpoint his location following an armed confrontation with officers. The trial is likely to be a test case for law enforcement use of UAVs.
The use of UAVs in the D.C. area became public information last week, after the FAA released a list of agencies currently or previously permitted to use the unmanned aerial vehicles. It included many federal departments, such as Agriculture, Homeland Security and Energy as well as local organizations such as Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech.
The use of the unmanned aircraft over U.S. soil has some in Congress concerned about Americans' privacy rights. Rep. Edward J. Markey, (D-MA), in an April 19 letter to FAA, wrote, "The potential for invasive surveillance of daily activities with drone technology is high. We must ensure that as drones take flight in domestic airspace, they don't take off without privacy protections for those along their flight path." (UAV helicopter image from file)
More News
Also: B-29 Superfortress Reunion, FAA Wants Controllers, Spirit Airlines Pulls Back, Gogo Galileo Van's Aircraft posted a short video recapping the goings-on around their reorganiz>[...]
Light Gun A handheld directional light signaling device which emits a brilliant narrow beam of white, green, or red light as selected by the tower controller. The color and type of>[...]
"The journey to this achievement started nearly a decade ago when a freshly commissioned Gentry, driven by a fascination with new technologies and a desire to contribute significan>[...]
"Our driven and innovative team of military and civilian Airmen delivers combat power daily, ensuring our nation is ready today and tomorrow." Source: General Duke Richardson, AFMC>[...]
Aircraft Conflict Predicted conflict, within EDST of two aircraft, or between aircraft and airspace. A Red alert is used for conflicts when the predicted minimum separation is 5 na>[...]