Well, let me back up a little, there have been remotely controlled aircraft since the 1920's, with the technology actually coming from Tesla in the 1890's.(RCflightline,2016) The only difference is now that the technology has gotten to the point that the once small aircraft can be scaled up to something that could cause a major conflict with a manned aircraft. The response from the FAA has been quick and very heavy handed. In December of last year, they put up a website that if you were going to fly ANY unmanned aircraft between .55 lbs and 55 lbs you had to register yourself and were given a number that you had to in someway mark on your drone that you were using for personal reasons. Any aircraft that was over the 55 lbs or was going to be used for commercial purposes, had to go through the whole process to become an N-registered aircraft just like a cessna or piper airplane. (FAA 2016)I was one of the first people to sign up for this because like I said, I know that this is going to be a big thing and I want to be in on the ground floor. With signing up for the website and giving them your information, you are told repeatedly that the limitations on you are that you are not to fly above 400 ft AGL, you are not to fly within 4 miles of an airport without contacting that airport, and you can not fly the aircraft out of your line of sight. All of these requirements will most definitely make it into the final rule.
I do believe that they will find a way to bring UAS into the Airspace system, it has just become too much of a force for the FAA to ignore. The only thing stopping the sky from being darkened by so many drones flying around is the regulation. But even with strict limitations on them, you see things like one landing on the white house lawn, drones being used for photography and everything else that is prohibited but still capable of being done. When the FAA realizes that they can not keep fighting this technology, there are going to be so many problems in almost every aspect there can be. There will have to be all new privacy laws written, as well as insurance for having something happen to you or your property by a drone, and countless other problems that people haven't even thought of yet. The biggest problem is that historically we have been able to keep idiots out of the NAS, just by the fact that it is very difficult to get your pilots licence and not anybody can just fly an airplane. But with drones, anyone with $200 can buy something that weighs about 30 lbs, has a HD camera and with no training whatsoever, can start flying these things over the unsuspecting public.
The military has made drones if not the centerpiece a very big part of its strategy, the advantages behind it are that the commanders are not putting people in harms way to fight an enemy. They can also deploy a drone much faster and with a much smaller footprint than an aircraft that needs fuel, back up crew, mechanics, parts, and armaments. Not to mention the cost if a drone goes down is only a couple hundred thousand dollars, where an aircraft is hundreds of millions of dollars. As a consequence of having these cheaper and easier aircraft at their disposal, that don't put American lives at risk, we are seeing commanders more likely to deploy drones than manned aircraft. And while the UAS are more precise than the carpet bombing of World War II there is still the human element missing from making sure that it is the right time to take the shot.
There are so many jobs for people that are interested in the UAS that are available right now. I actually almost had a job with a company that did ice flow and whale counting work, almost 10 years ago. But just a quick search on Indeed.com brought up over 375 jobs, from flying, to designing to managing Unmanned systems, for companies like Northrup Grumman and Raython, which are probably mostly for militart applications, but also for aerial photography and many other jobs. And like I said, this is just the beginning, as the FAA gets their act together and makes some rules that will actually work, you are going to see so many new job opportunities open up.
http://www.indeed.com/q-Unmanned-Aerial-System-jobs.html
RCFLlightline.com. (n.d.). History of Radio Control. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from https://rcflightline.com/rc-history/
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (2016, January 22). Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Registration. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/uas/registration/
I would have to agree that drones are going to vastly increase their presence in aviation. It is interesting I did not know civilians could operate UAVs over 55 lbs. However, I am sure getting an N number for you UAV is no easy task. Additionally, I would say you touched on a major point of operating UAVs in the NAS, and that is that it is much easier for someone to purchase a drone than it is to purchase an aircraft. This may cause issues with how they are going to regulate sales of drones, and/or how they are going to regulate training for drone pilots.
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