Of course, the efforts of one single country cannot produce meaningful results to address this new kind of risk, and coordination at a transnational level seems to be the better approach. According to the BBC, armed police were ready to attempt to shoot the drones down in Gatwick, and the government of the United Kingdom is considering implementing military-grade anti-drone equipment at all major UK airports and other critical infrastructure such as power stations and prisons ( ). However, recent events, such as the sighting of unidentified drones in, or close to, take-off and landing zones at Gatwick airport which caused severe disruption of airport operations during two days in December 2018, underpin the tension between safety and flexibility in this area. This impacts most commercial applications, which need more relaxed flight regulations to really take off. Just as an example: although the technology for remotely piloting an aircraft is certainly available, as the news about military operations with drones in remote areas shows, most regulators still struggle with allowing commercial drone operations beyond the pilot’s line of sight. Most countries are undergoing efforts to address this new phenomenon but are taking a cautious approach: being seen as “aircraft”, traditional concerns such as safety are predominant when issuing regulations for the certification and operation of drones. Of course, the fact that business analysts such as Goldman Sachs predict that there will be a 100 USD billion market opportunity for drones by 2020 (“Drones – Reporting for Work” under ) also helps in attracting investors and developers.Īs with other industries that appeared over the last 150 years, initially legislators were overrun by the legal implications and requirements of drones. Generating climate data, controlling borders, fire prevention, inspection of pipelines, electrical wires or contaminated environments, monitoring crops, delivery of all kinds of products, aerial photography, 3D mapping… are just but a few of the potential uses of these devices.ĭrone commercial start-ups are flourishing throughout the world, partly due to the vast number of potential commercial applications, partly due to the limited capital investment required when compared to other ventures, and partly due to the technological developments in telecommunications and robotics. Devices that were initially designed mainly for military purposes have quickly evolved into a new area with a plethora of commercial applications. There seems to exist a consensus that the drone industry will be one of the fastest growing over the next few decades.
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