Category Archives: UAVs / Drones

Drone Maker to Add No-Fly Firmware to Prevent Future White House Buzzing

In the wake of a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency employee’s late-night drunken mischief with a DJi Phantom 2 consumer quadrocopter drone over White House airspace, President Barack Obama called for new laws to govern the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Meanwhile, the company that manufactured the drone used in the ill-fated flight has announced that it will issue a mandatory upgrade to the firmware for its Phantom 2 line of products to make sure that customers comply with the FAA’s no-fly zone around DC.

In a press release issued this morning, DJI announced that the firmware update “will help users comply with the FAA’s Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) 0/8326, which restricts unmanned flight around the Washington, DC metropolitan area.The updated firmware (V3.10) will be released in the coming days and adds a No-Fly Zone centered on downtown Washington, DC and extends for a 25 kilometer (15.5 mile) radius in all directions. Phantom pilots in this area will not be able to take off from or fly into this airspace.”

DJI’s Phantom 2 drones already have firmware settings that prevent them from being flown near airports and other places where officials have set restrictions on flight. According to the company’s statement, DJI is also continuing to update the no-fly zone list for future firmware releases to prevent flights in other sensitive areas—and to prevent drones from being flown across national borders.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Drunken Spy Satellite Agency Employee Crashed Drone on White House Lawn

The curious incident of the drone in the night-time has been made a bit less mysterious today, as the Secret Service revealed new details into their investigation—including a confession by the pilot himself. According to the Secret Service, an unnamed employee of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) claimed responsibility for crashing a remote-controlled quadrocopter into a tree on the grounds of the White House.

The yet-unnamed employee reported the incident to his superiors at NGA. He claimed to have been drinking at an apartment near the White House when he decided early Monday morning to fly a friend’s new DJI Phantom drone. He claimed that he then lost control of the drone. Soon after the drone slipped unnoticed over the White House fence, it was spotted flying low over the grounds before it crashed into a tree.

The White House has a radar system to detect incoming aerial threats, but it did not detect the drone, which has the radar cross-section of a large bird at best. According to The New York Times, the Secret Service has been studying ways for the past few years to develop a defense against small drones, which could conceivably carry small explosives or other threats.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Feds Find Border Drones Don’t Actually Make Border More Secure

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own watchdog says that drones deployed at the United States-Mexico border do not achieve their objective of protecting the country.

In a 37-page report issued on December 24, 2014 but published for the first time on Tuesday, DHS’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concluded that “after 8 years, [Customs and Border Protection, or CBP] cannot prove that the program is effective because it has not developed performance measures.”

In a statement, the agency had a damning conclusion for the CBP drone program, which anticipates spending an additional $443 million to acquire and operate 14 more drones.

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

FAA’s Proposed Drone Rules to Impose Heavy Limits on Commercial Use

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to impose strict limits on the commercial use of drones, requiring flights to occur within daylight hours, rise no higher than 400 feet above the ground, and to remain within the sight of the person controlling the drone, The Wall Street Journal reported last night. Commercial drone operators would be required to have a license and be trained to fly manned aircraft, even though drones are operated remotely.

The Journal reported that people familiar with the matter suggested that, “While the FAA wants to open the skies to unmanned commercial flights, the expected rules are more restrictive than drone supporters sought and wouldn’t address privacy concerns over the use of drones.”

FAA policies currently allow hobbyist or recreational use of drones, but not commercial use. A federal judge’s ruling in March this year said the FAA issued its ban on commercial drone use illegally because it did not seek public input before adopting them; this forced the agency to begin a new rulemaking process. The proposal described in yesterday’s report could rule out the use of these devices by companies such as Amazon, which wants to eventually deliver packages via drones. Drones could also find uses in the farming, filmmaking, and construction industries.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Gov’t Board: Like A Drone, Your RC Aircraft is Regulated by Law, so Pay up

Raphael Pirker’s unmanned aircraft was very similar to these RiteWings planes.
ramsinks

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) panel has reversed a decision made earlier this year by an NTSB law judge, finding that a man’s remote-controlled model plane was indeed an aircraft. Raphael Pirker must pay the $10,000 fine that was originally ordered for violating the provision that prohibits commercial use of an unmanned aircraft.

As we reported in March 2014, Pirker used a RiteWing Zephyr II remote-controlled flying wing to record aerial video of a hospital campus for use in a television advertisement back in 2011. The year before, he posted a video filmed from a drone flying over New York City—including a close shot of the Statue of Liberty. Law enforcement did not interfere with Pirker, and he even gave the New York Police Department and the National Park Service a shout-out for “staying friendly, professional, and positive.” But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wasn’t amused and brought the civil case against Pirker.

Writing for the board in the judicial order, Acting Chairman Christopher Hart states:

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

DARPA Wants to Turn Existing Planes into Drone Motherships

A DARPA artist’s concept of how a flying drone carrier’s takeoff and landing pattern might look.
DARPA

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) kicked off a program seeking ways to convert existing large aircraft into drone carriers that could launch waves of unmanned aircraft a safe distance from a target to carry out a mission and then recover them—all while in flight. DARPA issued a request for information (RFI) kicking off the program November 7.

“We want to find ways to make smaller aircraft more effective, and one promising idea is enabling existing large aircraft, with minimal modification, to become ‘aircraft carriers in the sky’,” Dan Patt, program manager for DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said in an official statement issued by the agency.

The RFI document says that DARPA is seeking to prove “the feasibility and potential value of the ability to launch and recover volleys of small UAS [unmanned aircraft systems] from one or more existing large platforms (e.g., B-52, B-1, C-130, etc.).” The drones would carry payloads of less than 100 points and would need to be low-cost to be produced in large quantities for the sort of capability DARPA envisions.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Navigate a Drone too Close to a Stadium, Go to Jail

Pilots of drones or model aircraft could be fined or jailed for up to a year if they navigate near automobile racetracks or big sporting stadiums, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.

The Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) No. FDC 4/3621 is the first time US flight regulators have moved to criminally punish wayward drone pilots.

The rules—the first FAA update to pilots concerning sports venues in five years—reiterate an existing standard that prohibits pilots of all aircraft from flying under 3,000 feet and within three miles of stadiums from NCAA Division 1 football, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and even big car races. The no-fly area is designated “national defense airspace” for one hour before and after events at these venues with 30,000 or more seating capacity. The new regulation does allow for the “broadcast rights holder” of stadium events to enter the no-fly zone with permission.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Rogue Albanian Drone Flies Over Serbian Soccer Stadium, Canceling Match

An already tense soccer match in Belgrade between the national teams of Albania and Serbia has been suspended after a drone flew over the field waving a Greater Albania flag. Based on online footage, the drone appears to be a DJI Phantom or a Phantom 2, which retails for roughly $500 to $800 depending on the model.

The Tuesday game, which was to be a Euro 2016 qualifier match between the two sides, was the first time they had met in the Serbian capital since 1967. According to The Guardian, away fans were not allowed in the stadiums in either Belgrade or in the upcoming rematch in Tirana, the capital of the Republic of Albania.

The two sides’ enthusiasm for soccer has been overshadowed by a larger political issue: Kosovo, a republic that broke away from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, is not formally recognized by Serbia but is recognized by the United States, Canada, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, and many other states.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments