The Day of the Drone has arrived. Much to my disgust.
Drones have come a long way since the British produced a radio-controlled aircraft/drone to be used in target practice in 1935. It was nicknamed the Queen Bee.
In the 1960's a drone called Firebee, a jet-powered target for both surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, was produced for the US Air Force. Advances for aircraft without a human pilot has rapidly grown popular worldwide.
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When did drones become available to the public?
In 2006 the FAA decided to let the drone genie loose to the general public - a mistake in my opinion back then and now - and issued the first drone permits in America. The inventors touted the potential of non-military drone applications in society from entertainment to commerce. Capitalists exploited this new technology turning it into a billion-dollar industry home and abroad.
Here are eight drone-related risks:
* Airspace Threats.
* Vehicles for Weapons
* Low-Tech Corporate Espionage
* Hi-Tech Corporate Espionage
* Smuggling.
* Collisions.
* The difficulty in enforcing the rules.
* Drone-Based Hacking.
To no one's surprise the US possesses the most drones in the world. US military drones lead in capabilities and quantities with over 13000 unmanned aerial vehicles making it the largest military drone fleet globally.
In America, police started using drones in December 2015 and the program evolved into a "first responder" technology making it the first of its kind in the country. Good news.
But American drones have their dark side.
Public records show the FBI, DEA, and Border Patrol often use Predator drones in surveillance missions in the United States. These agencies share their drones with state and local police with alarming frequency. They have also been in violation of the 4th Amendment according to the courts that found citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their own homes.
I don't like drones. At least six states agree with me and have banned them in their airspace, a move I heartly applaud: Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
At first in mid-November, mysterious lights were seen blinking across the night skies over New Jersey and as weeks passed by there were reports of incandescent flying objects were logged in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
People were freaked out - and still are - because the government doesn't really know why all of those sightings keep happening and what they are. Thousands of reports pour in every day. In a lame ass excuse Secretary Mayorkas told ABC News that the uptick in drone sightings could be to do with a change in federal law last year that allowed drones to be flown at night.
Really? All of a sudden, we get swarms of drones over military installations and other government agencies because...of a new law enacted a year ago? It's no wonder people are talking about shooting drones down. They feel violated. The FAA manages US airspace, but they haven't offered any proof that the drones aren't a threat to the public as of this writing.
As it Stands, call me a conspiracy theorist but my years as a journalist taught me to question many of the government's programs and agencies and not be surprised when they lie.