December 2012
Brookings Institution
by Wells C. Bennett
These machines spark passionate debate. For some, their proliferation spells the demise of our civil liberties: a sky full of flying robots carrying cameras and maybe even weapons. Others dismiss these complaints as caricatures, and insist that UAS should fly more often, and in greater numbers than they do nowadays. Proponents see a cost-effective means of ensuring sustainable agriculture, mitigating the effects of natural disasters, mapping unexplored terrain, detecting atmospheric events, hunting down crooks, and preventing commuter gridlock.
FMRA does not resolve these debates, but seems nevertheless to chalk up a win for the second group – if only because the statute makes it easier for more drones to share our airspace.
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