The Future of Drones

As Congress works to integrate drones into American airspace, questions and concerns surrounding the UAVs abound.

“Eye in the Sky” drones strike fear in the hearts of civil libertarians.

Lockheed Martin’s Desert Hawk III, a simple, propeller-driven surveillance drone, has proved to be a valuable battlefield tool. Its civil duties remain to be seen.

Here is a Condor UAV at the air-ground training complex in Avon Park, Florida, before flying during Atlantic Strike V. Civil drones corresponding to the Condor are placed into one of five groups depending on weight, speed and operating altitude.

The industry trade group for drone manufacturers wants to assure pilots that most unmanned aircraft planned for future use would be of the small, RC model type.

An unmanned Little Bird helicopter, a smaller version of the manned A/MH-6M, is tested and evaluated by personnel from the U.S. Marine Corps. Deployment of civil drones depends on testing and research that has been conducted by the military.

This Air Force Heron TP medium-altitude long-endurance UAV takes off from Comalapa International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador, during a counter-drug operations support mission.

The U.S. Air Force Academy’s Viking 300 UAS flies over Camp Red Devil at Fort Carson, Colorado, in July 2009. Civil drones of this size and larger would be monitored by ATC similarly to the way manned aircraft are tracked in the air traffic system.