Monday, June 14, 2010

A Modest Proposal On Drone Operations in American Airspace

Lots of people, it seems, want to operate pilotless drones in American airspace.

I will agree, on one proviso: If there is a collision between a manned aircraft and a drone and there are fatalities involved, then the drone operator would be killed, right then and there. No trial, no appeal, no finding of fault, just "somebody dies, you also die." The drone operator would assume the same risk faced by any other pilot.

If that's not acceptable, then don't fly the frakking drones.

7 comments:

  1. I will agree, on one proviso: If there is a collision between a manned aircraft and a drone and there are fatalities involved, then the drone operator would be killed, right then and there.

    I'm down with that. You private pilots are scary enough. Heh ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fixer, if I screw up, I'm the one who gets killed. I can live with that. And one of the things I like bout flying is that, for the most part, I'm less likely to be killed in the air because of someone else's fucking up than I am on the roads.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm with EBM, the Copseyes are a commin
    and it is more than a flight risk..

    If they midair it's not private pilots
    to worry they are small and can turn fast, but a jet will never see them
    and it might make a serious mess.

    I've had the opportunity to mess with models in the 3-10foot wingspan right under the downwind of Bayport. Messes with your mind when you look down 900ft
    and theres what looks like a cub under
    you. Takes a moment for the eye to get the perspective right.

    I worry more about how they will be used not if they may crash or cause me to crash. That and no question, like
    GoodYear blimp people will shoot at the low flying copseyes and if they look
    like small planes maybe Cessnas and Pipers too.

    Eck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I worry more about how they will be used not if they may crash or cause me to crash.

    That's my real concern.

    Fixer, if I screw up, I'm the one who gets killed.

    Exactly! My dad was a private pilot and flew regularly. I know most take safety and flight rules seriously. It's just the ones I hear about that make me say "what were they thinking?"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Perhaps the operator gets wired up into a kind of dead man switch electric chair, where, if the drone is destroyed, the chair is activated. That way, no one has to execute their co-worker.

    Let's see how many stormtroopers want that job!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the spirit of the proposal, but the "off with their heads immediately" seems a bit, well... Islamic.

    You're right about the drones, though- we're about to see a great tension between (money, industry, cost savings, headcount) and (safety).

    Anybody gonna bet on (safety)?

    ps think there's an official standard for drone pilots?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Vannevar, I'm not betting on safety being triumphant. At least, not until the first drone knocks a Cessna with a family of four out of the sky.

    It's not "Islamic", it's about guaranteeing that the drone drivers also have some skin in the game.

    ReplyDelete

House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.

In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.

All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.

(Please don't feed the trolls.)

中國詞不評論,冒抹除的風險。僅英語。

COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.