The Current Status of UAVs

Good morning everyone,

UAVs are mostly just used recreationally; however, their use commercially is increasing exponentially. Companies are currently switching technology to be able to survey land, take pictures, create maps, etc. from drones and UAVs rather than their old processes. So incorporating UAVs into their businesses is drastically saving cutting costs. Civilian UAV usage is mostly just regulated in commercial situations; however, all UAVs, beside model airplanes, over 8 ounces must be registered. The previously proposed ruling as turned into the final regulations. These regulations consist of maximum weight of 55 lbs, maximum airspeed of 100 mph, maximum altitude of 400 feet AGL, only daylight operations, and the UAV must stay in visible line of sight (FAA, 2016).

Yes, I believe that UAVs will be incorporated into the NAS within the next decade. The military is already able to fly in any airspace with their larger UAVs such as the Global Hawk. The NextGen technology will use satellite based technology to increase reliability and decrease operational costs. The increased reliability will allow for closer spacing regulations, and thus is the main reason I believe that UAVs will be in the NAS. Not only will controllers and the UAV pilots be able to see surrounding traffic with the ADS-B technology, but other pilots will most likely be able to see the UAV traffic too with ADS-B in technology.  In addition, the UAVs generally have several cameras on board for a 360 degree view, so the pilots will also be able to see and avoid traffic visually.  

The military has had the largest success in UAV usage. They have the largest UAVs in the world that are constantly flying worldwide for surveillance. The UAV integration is highly efficient. They are able to fly anywhere in the world whenever they want. They don't have to worry about the pilot being fatigued because there are multiple pilots in the room with the computer controls. They often have different pilots to do the takeoff and landings, and the enroute portion. Financially, UAV's are very efficient because in the past few years we have cut their flight costs per hour in half (Clark, 2016). It is nearly impossible to do that with normal military aircraft.

With the growing interest in UAV's, there are plenty of jobs in the industry. In fact, it is estimated that there will be 100,000 additional UAV jobs to hit the market over the next few years (Alan, 2016). These jobs range anywhere from aerial photography and cinematography for land surveying to action sports. There are many different websites that I found that shows potential jobs, but this website was the best because it had the most jobs posted: http://uavcoach.com/uav-jobs/.

References:

Clark, C. (2016, October 13). Global Hawk Tests U-2 High Rez Camera; Flight Costs Drop. Breaking
       Defense. Retrieved from http://breakingdefense.com/2016/10/global-hawk-tests-u-2-high-rez-
       camera-flight-costs-drop/
Dowd, A. (2016). UAV Jobs: Careers in the Drone Industry. UAV Coach. Retrieved from
       http://uavcoach.com/uav-jobs/
FAA. (2016, June 21). Summary of Small Unmanned Aircraft Rule (Part 107). Federal Aviation
       Administration. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/uas/media/Part_107_Summary.pdf