Who Is Operating Unmanned Aircraft in the U.S.? EFF Files Suit to Try to Find Out
January 12th, 2012Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit today against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), demanding data on certifications and authorizations the agency has issued for the operation of unmanned aircraft, also known as drones.
Drones are designed to carry surveillance equipment – including video cameras, infrared cameras and heat sensors, and radar – that can allow for sophisticated and almost constant surveillance. They can also carry weapons. Traditionally, drones have been used almost exclusively by military and security organizations. However, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses drones inside the United States to patrol the U.S. borders, and state and local law enforcement are increasingly using unmanned aircraft for investigations into things like cattle rustling, drug dealing, and the search for missing persons.
Any drone flying over 400 feet needs a certification or authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, part of the DOT. But there is currently no information available to the public about who specifically has obtained these authorizations or for what purposes. EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act request in April of 2011 for records of unmanned aircraft activities, but the DOT so far has failed to provide the information.
This just needs to be looked at from another direction. Don’t ask “who’s flying the drones?”. Ask “Who has registered aircraft type….?”
Start looking through here:
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/AcftRef_Inquiry.aspx
Here’s one in particular that belongs to NASA.
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=870NA
Some of these don’t get tail numbers, because they’re toys. Functional, video sending toys.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/02/faa-looks-into-news-corps-daily-drone-raising-questions-about-who-gets-to-fly-drones-in-the-u-s/
You, or I, or anyone here, can build their own drone. According to the FAA, they can’t be flown above 400′. Bah, what’s the FAA know. 🙂
The reality is, you or I could build a drone, and fly it anywhere from 1,200′ to 14,500′, and never get the FAA’s attention. The only way to get their attention is….
Fly too fast (say Mach 1 or higher). That’ll get people calling.
Fly too close to a building. 1,200′ AGL takes care of this.
Fly into something other than Class E airspace. That’ll get the local ATC, who will be more than happy to get the FAA involved. If you look hostile (a drone that looks like a cruise missile will do that nicely), you’ll likely get it shot down, and the pieces picked up, and some little part will be traced.
Fly too close to another aircraft. That’d be mostly a midair collision with another VFR pilot.
Now, the matter of who’s requested and received licensing from the FAA? Well, probably every major aircraft company. Everyone with something resembling aircraft that deals with the DoD, Every small aircraft company who wants to try their hand at UAVs. There are lots of model aircraft companies, and they are all just a little bit of programming and hardware away from selling drones.
As the DoD, and other gov’t agencies which can claim state secrets have interest in these, the FAA probably won’t ever release the list. Their fun little designs now may become the next generation of some heavily used technology. A leak now is dangerous for the future.
Heck, what if you knew you could jam the GPS on a drone, and convince it to land at “home”, and it lands in the wrong hands, that could be bad. But ha, that’d never happen. Any engineer worth keeping would consider compromised GPS data, and go with dead reckoning.
Oh.. ya.. Iran did it. That’s a bit embarrassing.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/232300666
on a more positive note, this tech really does have a potential positive outcome in civ hands. still a huge potential for abuse, but that cuts both ways.
http://uas.noaa.gov/news/drone-seeks-storm-secrets.html
@pessimistic
I actually was considering making drones. No, that’s a lie, I’ve been planning it, and still am. The biggest reason is … because I want to. 🙂
It would collect data from various sensors (3 axis gyro, 3 axis accel, air pressure, air speed, laser altitude sensor, GPS, VOR with broadcast AM stations, etc).
Then it’s a matter of making it do what you want it to. Takeoff, straight and level, waypoint navigation, and landing. And of course the navigation has to be given so it can do pesky things, like avoid smacking into mountains, building, towers, transiting restricted airspace, etc, etc.
If it works, the list of potential buyers is absolutely huge.. News media (TV, radio, newspaper, print). Law enforcement for traffic observation, special event security (sports events, traffic and crowd control, etc), law enforcement for covert obeservation, real estate agents to show better views of remote property, farmers/ranchers in remote areas, weather observations (like you linked). Pretty much anything that would put a helicopter or aircraft in the air, that doesn’t require transporting someone or something.
i work with surveyors/mappers and they use UAVs all the time for urban planning, natural resource inventories, geographic mapping, geological surveys, etc. they’re a combination of state government, university research, and private industry types… they aren’t affiliated with aircraft companies but somehow or other they have licenses to use (or own?) UAVs on a regular basis.
neologiste,
How high are they flying? If they’re under 400′, the FAA doesn’t car. And like I said, under 1,200′ AGL, the FAA doesn’t really care until there is an incident.
There’s an awful lot of sky, and relatively few aircraft in it.
No one really cares about GA flying VFR (General Aviation flying under Visual Flight Rules).
Look around for the 2005 news stories about a Cessna Citation jet, tail number N182PA . It was stolen by a guy who wasn’t licensed to fly jets. As I recall, he hadn’t had any jet training, only single engine prop. He stole the plane, stayed low enough to not need a flight plan, and flew over Florida and Georgia to impress his friends. He eventually dumped the plane at an airport in Georgia. If I remember right, one of his friends told the police, because they were afraid of getting caught.
With the transponder off, flying VFR, and avoiding controlled and restricted airspace, you can do what you’d like. Hell, you can fly an ultralight with minimal or no licensing (I’d have to go look it up). As I recall, ultralights are limited on fuel to something like 5 gallons, or 50 miles from the place of departure. There are other rules, such as weight restrictions, horsepower ratings, etc.
As far as the FAA is concerned, there’s no difference between you building a UAV/drone flying at 10 feet over your house or 100 feet over your house, it doesn’t matter. You can put up a 100′ tower in your back yard (local building restrictions apply), and toss a paper airplane from it, and fall under the same rules. At that point, the paper airplane is a “drone”. It doesn’t have a pilot, and determines it’s own flight path (as the aerodynamics dictate).