The Federal Aviation Administration says it wants to see drones sharing domestic airspace with commercial flights by 2015. And the FAA has designated six research sites around the country to help reach that goal, including one in New York.
According to an article in USA Today, the sites will work on different aspects of drone use. Griffiss International Airport near Utica will be charged with determining how drones and passenger aircraft can avoid collisions, especially in the Northeast’s congested airspace. The FAA received 25 applications for the work, which is supposed to create 100,000 jobs and infuse the economy with $82 billion.
This is not New York State’s first experience with drones. Many antiwar protesters, including some from Rochester, have been arrested and charged with trespassing and similar offenses at the National Guard base outside Syracuse. The base is used to pilot drone attacks in the US war against terrorists.
But the protesters say that the drones often kill and injure civilians, and that the attacks have fueled anti-US sentiment through large swaths of Muslim countries. And they say the operations base near Syracuse makes the Finger Lakes region vulnerable to reciprocal terrorist attacks.
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2013.
Will drones be allowed to operate freely without any oversight? Will they be allowed to fly over and photograph whatever they want? How will the privacy and safety of New Yorkers be protected? In November a drone crashed into Lake Ontario. The cause of the crash has not been made public. What if one of these things crashes in a populated area?