WASHINGTON — Drones are going mainstream.
Civilian cousins of the unmanned military aircraft that have tracked and killed terrorists in the Middle East and Central Asia are in demand by police departments, border patrols, power companies, news organizations and others wanting a bird’s-eye view that’s too impractical or dangerous for planes or helicopters.
There are concerns that they could invade people’s privacy. The government worries that they could collide with passenger planes or crash to the ground, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.
Despite that, pressure is building to give drones the same access as manned aircraft to the sky at home.
“It’s going to be the next big revolution in aviation. It’s coming,” says Dan Elwell, the Aerospace Industries Association’s vice president for civil aviation.
Some impetus comes from the military, which will bring home drones from Afghanistan and wants room to test and use them. In December, Congress gave the Federal Aviation Administration six months to pick half a dozen sites across the country where the military and others can fly unmanned aircraft in the vicinity of regular air traffic, with the aim of demonstrating they’re safe.
The Defense Department says the demand for drones and their expanding missions requires routine and unfettered access to domestic airspace, including around airports and cities. In a report in October, the Pentagon called for flights first by small drones, both solo and in groups, day and night, expanding over several years. Flights by large and medium-size drones would follow.
Other government agencies want to fly drones, but they’ve been hobbled by an FAA ban unless they first receive permission. Government agencies had fewer than 300 waivers at the end of 2011. Businesses that want to put drones to work are out of luck.
But that’s changing.
Congress has told the FAA that it must allow civilian and military drones to fly in civilian airspace by September 2015. This spring, the FAA is set to take a first step by proposing rules that would allow limited commercial use of small drones.
Until recently, agency officials were saying there were too many unresolved safety issues to give drones greater access. Even now, FAA officials are cautious about describing their plans, and they avoid discussion of deadlines.
“The thing we care about is doing that in an orderly and safe way and finding the appropriate … balance of all the users in the system,” Michael Huerta, the FAA’s acting administrator, told an industry luncheon in Washington.
Drones come in all sizes, from the high-flying Global Hawk with its 116-foot wingspan to a hummingbirdlike drone that weighs less than an AA battery and can perch on a window ledge to record sound and video. Lockheed Martin has developed a fake maple-leaf seed, or “whirly bird,” equipped with imaging sensors, that weighs less than an ounce.
Power companies want drones to monitor transmission lines. Farmers want to fly them over fields to detect which crops need water. Ranchers want them to count cows.
Journalists are exploring drones’ newsgathering potential. The FAA is investigating whether The Daily, a digital publication of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., used drones without permission to capture aerial footage of floodwaters in North Dakota and Mississippi last year. At the University of Nebraska, journalism professor Matt Waite has started a lab for students to experiment with using a small, remote-controlled helicopter.
“Can you cover news with a drone? I think the answer is yes,” Waite said.
The aerospace industry forecasts a worldwide deployment of almost 30,000 drones by 2018, with the U.S. accounting for half.
“The potential … civil market for these systems could dwarf the military market in the coming years if we can get access to the airspace,” said Ben Gielow, government-relations manager for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, an industry trade group.
The hungriest market is the nation’s 19,000 law enforcement agencies.
Customs and Border Patrol has nine Predator drones mostly in use on the U.S.-Mexico border and plans to expand to 24 by 2016. Officials say the unmanned aircraft have helped in the seizure of more than 20 tons of illegal drugs and the arrest of 7,500 people since border patrols began six years ago.
Police departments are experimenting with smaller drones to photograph crime scenes, aid searches and scan the ground ahead of SWAT teams. The Justice Department has four drones that it loans to police agencies.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which focuses on civil-liberties threats involving new technologies, sued the FAA recently, seeking disclosure of which agencies have been given permission to use drones.
Industry officials said privacy concerns are overblown.
“Today anybody— the paparazzi, anybody — can hire a helicopter or a (small plane) to circle around something that they’re interested in and shoot away with high-powered cameras all they want,” said Elwell, the aerospace-industry spokesman.
