The Current Status of UAVs

     The UAVs are very popular these days with everyone, from military people to civilians. Kids love them, use them for fun and recreational purposes. Youtubers, cinematographers, and photographers use them often to capture new exciting angles and give their work something extra. Aviation enthusiasts love to fly them, to pass time or for those who for some reason can't qualify for a pilot's certificate. And of course businesses use them for commercial purposes. It put's them out there, makes them deliver services of good faster and people like that. Because of actual aircrafts flying in different air spaces there has to be rules for manned and unmanned to coexist. So to use a small unmanned aircraft for recreational, commercial, governmental, or other purposes it has to be registered under Part 107 of the regulations. These regulations include operational limitations like maximum weight, time of operation, speed and altitude, area or airspace in which it can be operated with and without ATC clearance, weather minimums, how and who can operate or supervise operation of the unmanned aircraft. I should say there is a waiver process, which provides flexibility to existing regulations. Part 107.200(a) states, "The administrator may a certificate of waiver authorizing a deviation from any regulation specified in Part 107.205 *List of regulations subject to waiver* if the administrator finds that a proposed small UAV operation can safely be conducted under the terms of that certificate of waiver". This allows a UAV operator to propose an operation that is not permitted under Part 107.
     Unmanned aircrafts are operated in countries across the globe, they're big in Europe but my focus is on its use in Africa. In early 2018, Tanzania's government began using drones to deliver medical supplies such as blood and vaccines to remote areas. The government expects to save lives thanks to faster delivery of medical supplies. Prior, Rwanda launched a drone delivery program with zipline. They've made well over 1,400 similar deliveries.
     Integrating UAVs into the NAS is something I see happening in the future. The fact that UAVs introduce a unique element into the National Airspace and present the risk of collision with other aircrafts and other civil airspace users in not new. Dating back to June 1981, the FAA published an Advisory Circular (AC) entitled "Notice of Policy for Unmanned Aircraft Systems". More recently, to mitigate the risk of an accident or incident between UAVs and other traffic in the NAS, the FAA has authorized a series of guidelines to determine if the UAVs may be allowed to conduct flight operations in the NAS. Specifically, it established a dedicated unmanned aircraft program office in December 2005 to serve as the organization's focal point for unmanned aviation policies and standards. My point is there have been measures in place for a long time to try to make this happen so it's highly probably that it will happen. Although, the challenges to make it happen are great. To mention a few, the struggle of an airline pilot to see and avoid these small UAVs, ATCs ability to safely direct every aircraft through the airspaces especially without RADAR or NextGen technology. The accident rate for UAVs is higher than for conventional aircraft. A significant proportion of these accidents are associated with human error. I think, if the the UAVs are to be permitted to be operated in the NAS, it'll be necessary to understand the human factors associated with these vehicles. Also the public perception, which historically carries a lot of weight, is yet to be seen. How they view the development now and how they'll react should there be an accident or incident.
     As far as  the military is concerned, I think the introduction of UAVs has transformed their strategies. Stealth being a huge one for me. Conducting operations, surveillance and reconnaissance undetected gives them an advantage over the enemies. I believe their introduction has been successful considering the money and manpower it would take to conduct such operation. And about all, you can't put an amount of money on a life lost so if the drones keep men and women that serve out of harms way or at least reduces that risk then that's a certain success.
     UAV Jobs: https://www.indeed.com/q-Uav-jobs.html & https://www.indeed.com/q-Pilot-Uav-jobs.html
   

REFERENCES

Herwitz, Stanley R. PhD, Hobbs, Alan PhD. Human Factors in the Maintenance of Unmanned Aircraft

McFarland, Matt. East Africa is leading the world in drone delivery. money.cnn.com

Ravich, Timothy M. The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace.

Shoffet, Daniel. Drone Intergration: A Pilot's Solution to a Serious Entertainment Problem, 33J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 1 (2016)  

Zeigler, Brad. The Part 107 Waiver Process and Airspace Authorizations.