"This is Your Captain-bot Speaking"

     Whether you choose to believe it or not, unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and, more largely grouped, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are the wave of the future in the aviation industry. I don't say this to mean all Airline Captains will be forced out of a job within our lifetimes, but many aspects of aviation will be phased out of direct human control and towards automation. Some entirely new applications of aviation may even be created that weren't ever thought of before. In the next 15-20 years, I would expect to see everything from drone surveillance, to moving traffic cameras, package delivery (Amazon has already announced plans for this, will be discussed in a bit...), and even movies and cinematography benefit from the introduction and evolution of unmanned aerial systems, if those industries aren't already benefited immeasurably from the use of drones/UAS's.

     UAV's are defined as a powered aerial vehicle which does not carry a human operator, and can fly based off a pre-programmed flight path, or controlled via human operator from a remote location. They can also be vehicles that are either re-usable or expendable for one time missions (think military applications). Unmanned Aerial Systems differ slightly in that it is a more broad term to describe anything from high altitude remote control airplanes to quadricopters used for steady aerial filming, or pretty much anything in the grey areas of the term "UAV".

     Amazon has already launched plans for an entire network of delivery drones, and has even pitched a "drone highway" regarding rules and regulations for how to govern commercial drone traffic and usage starting with a proposal to allow lanes of drone traffic under 500 feet AGL. Whether or not this proposal will be implemented has yet to be seen, but it is nonetheless a good step forward in the UAS world. The Amazon proposal has many rules and regulations already built in, especially regarding how high/how fast and where drones can fly. Airports are a definite and obvious no fly zone, but the Amazon proposal to allow high speed drone traffic from 200-500 feet AGL while allowing for local traffic (RC planes, helicopters, personal filming drones, etc.) to have all the low speed fun they want below 200 feet AGL seems very modest and reasonable. 

     We already see UAS's in use in many areas of life. Sports broadcasting stations are starting to film newer angles of sporting events, multi-million dollar companies are looking towards them as a replacement to shipping costs, and they are being (and have been for some time) marketed to the public as a personal form of entertainment and hobby. Although I think we are a long way off from having unmanned passenger flights from New York to Barcelona, or unmanned FedEx 767s flying precious freight from Denver to Miami, I think the age of the drone is upon us, and I think it simply foolish to think otherwise or try to avoid it.

Sources:

Mac, R. (2015, July 28). Amazon Proposes Drone Highway As It Readies For Flying Package Delivery. Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2015/07/28/amazon-proposes-drone-highway-as-it-readies-for-flying-package-delivery/

Ross, P. (2011, November 29). When Will We Have Unmanned Commercial Airliners? Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/when-will-we-have-unmanned-commercial-airliners/0

Online Dictionary. (2005). Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/unmanned aerial vehicle