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FAA Predicts 7 Million Drones By 2020 (timeslive.co.za) 56

Posted by EditorDavid from the frequent-flyer dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The FAA is predicting that the number of drones in the U.S. will increase to 7 million by 2020, though they're still prohibited within 15 miles of Washington D.C. Earlier this month a drone even performed the first FAA-sanctioned drone delivery to an urban area, carrying food, water and a first-aid kit in a box attached to a rope, while a team led by a 15-year-old pilot won the $250,000 first-place prize in the first World Drone Prix in Dubai. The FAA logged 538 drone incidents in the U.S. over the last six months, according to a new report released Friday, including hundreds of incidents in which drones approached airports. But while one incident involved a drone within 20 feet of a plane, "the majority of the incidents are minor," reports The Verge, "with pilots or bystanders reporting drones that are flying in restricted airspace without necessarily endangering anyone."
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FAA Predicts 7 Million Drones By 2020 More

FAA Predicts 7 Million Drones By 2020

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  • You are lonely if you can't connect your mind to the other drones. All hail the borg queen!

  • " The FAA logged 538 drone incidents in the U.S. over the last six months, according to a new report released Friday, "

    And not ONE has been verified, no radar signature or images in controlled airspace, not ONE! Typical FUD.

    • no radar signature or images in controlled airspace.

      yeah no shit Sherlock. of course all drone pilots are nice law abiding citizens, couldn't have anything to do with the fact most drones don't register on Radar. I am sure the pilots that had near misses and took evasive action are all liars as they didn't stop to take a photo.

      • So why the hell, given that they've had cockpit voice and data recorders for decades, don't modern airliners and even light-aircraft have dashcams?

        Surely it's not rocket science to fit a dashcam to an airplane and that footage may be invaluable in a crash analysis or when pilots claim to have had a "close call" with a drone.

        Seems to me that we've had these hundreds of reports but not a single shred of photographic evidence.

        Something stinks!

        • So why the hell, given that they've had cockpit voice and data recorders for decades, don't modern airliners and even light-aircraft have dashcams?

          You give the dashcams too much credit. When you're flying past something about 30x10cm in size (profile view) that doesn't stand out or have brightly coloured markings at 350km/h give a couple of hundred, but not really take anything, then your dash cam may if you're very lucky produce something that looks like a smudge in a single frame of your footage.

          Which makes me wonder how many of these were actually birds in the first place.

    • If they're treating them like commercial aircraft now those incident reports and accident investigations will be on the NTSB website.

  • based upon nothing more than /. posts.

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