E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Chris Francescani / Reuters
A Draganflyer X6, six-rotor remote controlled helicopter, which can fly up to 20 mph and travel a quarter mile, is pictured at the Grand Valley Model Airfield in Mesa County, Colo. The Draganflyer X6 is a property of Mesa County Sheriff's Department.
NEW YORK -- They hover over Hollywood film sets and professional sports events. They track wildfires in Colorado, survey Kansas farm crops and vineyards in California. They inspect miles of industrial pipeline and monitor wildlife, river temperatures and volcanic activity.
They also locate marijuana fields, reconstruct crime scenes and spot illegal immigrants breaching U.S. borders.
Tens of thousands of domestic drones are zipping through U.S. skies, often flouting tight federal restrictions on drone use that require even the police and the military to get special permits.
Armed with streaming video, swivel cameras and infrared sensors, a new breed of high-tech domestic drones is beginning to change the way Americans see the world -- and one another.
Powered by the latest microtechnology and driven by billions in defense industry and commercial research dollars, domestic drones are poised for widespread expansion into U.S. airspace once regulation catches up with reality.
That is scheduled to begin in late 2015, when the U.S. government starts issuing commercial drone permits.
Veteran aerial photographer Mark Bateson, a consultant to the film and television industry and some police departments, said one reality show producer asked him last year whether his custom-made drone could hover over a desert and use its thermal imaging sensors to spot ghosts for a ghost-hunter reality series.
Bateson rejected that request. "But I heard they eventually found someone to do it," he said.
"Commercially, the culture already exists," said Ben Miller, a Mesa County, Colorado, sheriff's deputy who has been flying drones with special authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration since 2009.
"Turn on your TV and pay close attention to major sports events. You'll see that in many cases they are getting aerial shots using a UAS (unmanned aerial system). I would venture to say that if you've seen an action movie in the last five years, chances are that a UAS was used."
Open skies
Federal legislation enacted last year requires the FAA to prepare a plan to open U.S. skies in 2015 to widespread use of unmanned aircraft by public agencies and private industry.
Potential markets include agriculture, shipping, oil exploration, commercial fishing, major league sports, film and television production, environmental monitoring, meteorological studies, law enforcement and the news media.
Ten years of war have given robot developers a chance to refine and improve their bots. Now the robots are finding all sorts of new jobs on the homefront.
The aviation and aerospace industry research firm Teal Group estimated last year that global spending on unmanned aircraft will double over the next 10 years, to nearly $90 billion, with the U.S. accounting for 62 percent of research and development spending and 55 percent of procurement spending.
For decades, model airplane hobbyists have been allowed to fly small, remote-controlled aircraft up to 400 feet and at least a quarter mile from any airport. While public agencies can get permission to use unarmed drones, all commercial use remains banned.
"As a hobbyist - I can do whatever I want right now, within remote-control guidelines," said Bateson, the aerial photographer. "But as soon as you turn it into a business ... the FAA says you are violating the national airspace."
Bateson said that whether his drone shoots video for fun or for profit, "There is no greater danger to the national airspace."
Last year the National Football League petitioned the FAA to speed the licensing of commercial drones, joining Hollywood's Motion Picture Association of America, which has been lobbying the agency for several years, an MPAA spokesman told the drone news website UAS Vision.
The FAA has issued 1,428 drone permits to universities, law enforcement and other public agencies since 2007, when the agency formally banned commercial drone use. Of those, 327 permits remain active, said FAA spokesman Les Dorr.
Tough to enforce
Bateson flies a customized 48-inch-wide Styrofoam fixed-wing remote-controlled aircraft that cost about $20,000 - compared with up to $1 million for a helicopter. He said his aircraft has logged 1,800 miles and has recorded 60 hours of high-resolution video. He said he has never run into trouble with the FAA.
Patrick Egan, an unmanned aircraft consultant to the U.S. military and editor of sUAS News, a drone news website, said the FAA's commercial ban on drones is unenforceable.
"How do you possibly enforce these regulations?" he said.
Earlier this year, Connecticut marketing firm ImageMark Strategy and Design launched a drone-powered aerial photo and video service to offer to its existing clients, which include universities, golf resorts and real estate firms.
Partner Scott Benton said his company invested about $20,000 in remote-controlled multi-rotor copters equipped to carry camcorders or SLR digital cameras with swivel tilts. Benton said he wasn't even aware of FAA restrictions on commercial drone use until after he purchased all the equipment.
He said his company plans to charge clients for editing and post-production work, not the drone flights.
Many commercial drone operators offer similar arguments. Some say they operate only on private land. Others say they are selling data, not drone flight time.
Still others say they will simply take their chances.
"Honestly?" said one commercial operator, who requested anonymity to protect his business. "My hope is that I'm far afield enough and small enough potatoes to the FAA that I can fly under the radar on this one."
Privacy concerns
In 2011, News Corp's tablet news site, the Daily, sent a Microdrone MD4-1000 into the skies over Alabama, Missouri and North Dakota to capture dramatic aerial footage of flood damage. A subsequent FAA investigation resulted in a warning, an FAA spokesman told Reuters. A News Corp spokesman declined to comment.
Last fall, a collective shudder rose up from Hollywood when false reports surfaced that the aggressive tabloid news website TMZ was seeking permission to fly its own drone.
The report was false, but it raised concerns.
"I'm less worried about the police getting a fleet of drones than I am about the news media," said Egan.
"Imagine what it will be like when the paparazzi can send a fleet of drones into the Hollywood hills."
The boom in drone use, both private and public, is also raising privacy concerns.
Civil liberties groups are urging federal and state legislators to place immediate restrictions on drone use by U.S. law enforcement agencies, which have historically been quick to capitalize on emerging technology like cell phone tracking.
At least 15 states have drafted legislation that would restrict drone use. In Seattle last month, a public outcry prompted the mayor to order the police chief to return the department's two new drones to their manufacturer.
Blacksheep drones
An even bigger concern for many is security. The activities of some drone operators are fueling fears about the potential for terrorism or that drones could interfere with manned air traffic and cause an accident.
A group of skilled drone operators using "first person view," or FPV, technology, has sent Ritewing Zephyr drones that capture high-quality video of visual thrill rides around some of the world's most famous landmarks.
The group, known as Team Blacksheep, has made a series of videos using drones circling the torch on New York City's Statue of Liberty and London's Big Ben clock tower. Team Blacksheep's FPV drones have darted through the arches of the Golden Gate Bridge and buzzed the peak of the Matterhorn.
The videos, captured at dizzying angles, are wildly popular online, but hobbyists and other drone enthusiasts worry that such videos give the industry a bad name.
"Those are the people the FAA should be going after," Bateson said.
A Team Blacksheep founder did not respond to requests for comment on security concerns.
Would-be attackers have already tried to exploit drones. Last fall, a Massachusetts man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for plotting to attack Washington, D.C., with three remote-controlled airplanes carrying C-4 explosives.
Related stories
White House: Congress to get classified drone info
Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on Americans
Anticipating domestic boom, colleges rev up drone piloting programs
Drones may also be vulnerable to hacking.
Last summer, Department of Homeland Security officials challenged Texas aerospace engineering professor Todd Humphreys and his class to try to "spoof" a DHS drone's GPS system.
GPS "spoofing" is a technique by which a vehicle's GPS receiver can be tricked and taken over by a slightly more powerful signal that mimics the attributes of the original signal - essentially an airborne hack.
Humphreys and his students succeeded in hacking the drone and took control of its flight path.
If a college class "can spoof the GPS, what can other nation states or terrorist groups do?" Representative Paul Broun (R-Ga.) asked at a recent congressional hearing on domestic drones.
Chinese espionage?
Some U.S. drone designers worry about the consequences of what they see as a slow U.S. response to a rapidly evolving technology.
"The Chinese are going to kill us," said Texas pilot Gene Robinson, who spent $20,000 designing an innovative fixed-wing drone for search-and-rescue missions. "They have copied every single design, including mine, that they can get their hands on."
Robinson said he installed Web-tracking software on his drone design Web page and then watched last spring as a Chinese design company "spent a month on my Web page ... reverse-engineered my design" and began selling mass-produced copies in December - for $169.
Side-by-side pictures of Robinson's model and the Chinese model that he showed a reporter look virtually identical.
Robinson went online and ordered one of Chinese models - to see if he could attach his equipment to the cheaper version.
"It was a dog, a pig," he said. "It didn't fly worth a damn."
More from Open Channel:
- New al-Qaida terror guidebook urges young extremists to think small
- Chinese trader, indicted in US, accused of busting Iran missile embargo
- Environmental group: Chemicals used in drinking water may be harming you
Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Well isn't this interesting. Our taxdollars hard at work... against ourselves.
Typical dimwit response. If you read the article (you can read, can't you) you would have seen most are used by private industry. Those used by government agencies are mainly used for firefighting, traffic control and other uses. Damm that innovation.
This just wreaks of a downplay story to make using combat drones against our own citizens seem like not such a big deal. There is a HUGE difference between a camera drone used to inspect pipelines or something like that vs the US gov't using them against it's own citizens.
With your small head crammed in the sands of denial it is hard to see clearly what is happening. Or maybe you're so gullible that you believe everything you read (you can read, can't you).
Scalzo,
Dimwit response?
With things like this in the article
They also locate marijuana fields, reconstruct crime scenes and spot illegal immigrants breaching U.S. borders.
The FAA has issued 1,428 drone permits to universities, law enforcement and other public agencies since 2007, when the agency formally banned commercial drone use. Of those, 327 permits remain active, said FAA spokesman Les Dorr.
At least 15 states have drafted legislation that would restrict drone use. In Seattle last month, a public outcry prompted the mayor to order the police chief to return the department's two new drones to their manufacturer.
Plus the fact that is the caption under the pictures says that drone belongs to a sherriffs department.
It's dimwitted of him to think that government agencies are using these drones? Really?
ProFreedom,
Finally we agree on something. :)
People will come to regret this technology being pursued.
And I'll bet you can't see a correlation between these drones and a push to take rifles away from citizens.
A bullet from a rifle can travel up to a mile and more. Now, how close is that drone going to get over your property to find out what's going on? How much of it will people take before they feel like they are being attacked by their own government and want to shoot the damn things out of the sky?
ROFLMAO...
What's the point? We're giving them amnesty and releasing thousands of them from detention centers RIGHT NOW! Why would we waste money on drones tryingn to catch them coming over the border?
We spot the illegals to go give them their DL and SS# and a job with free healthcare.
Technology is great but we are heading in a very dangerous area with it. We are slowly becoming a police state. All the key elements are being put in place, soon enough they wont even need to flip the switch to make it happen.
I'm thinking about "plying" to San Francisco.......damned MSNBC typos.
I saw one over my hot tub. So, I turned it into a blind. Can't use it for bath anymore but it's good for shooting at drones -- a bit of buck shot will kill the trespasser and to date, except for laws against discharge of a firearm in certain areas, I don't know whats illegal about it.
A trespassing robot has no rights. Maybe the government, with the help of the DHS, will now make it illegal to kill a "government" controled termite from invading your home without a warrant. 1984
These drones are a damn menace.
Now when I fly I have to be on the lookout for these stupid contraptions.
It won't be long until one of these drones collides with a private aircraft and then the lawsuits will begin.
.
I'm selling my guns so I can fund a drone army.
PLY me to the Moon.
Come ply with me.
US1776: That's what I was thinking. Just wait until one of these little buggers takes out a passenger jet on take-off. If some of our resident forum rednecks want some target practice....
Every step you take, every move you make, they'll be watching you!
There's no place like DRONE! :)
Government agencies flouting the law? No way. (Sarcasm fully intended.)
This is why the government, and everyone else, should not be allowed access to drones. Period.
Those who would give up Essential Liberty (or convenience) to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
If our legislators don't "shoot them down" American citizens should.
Konservatives are getting upset about the drones because they weren't able to do it first......
Jeep Gal,,,,,,,,, Lookin good, girl.
Is this what budget cuts are not allowed to affect? Cause I find it hard to believe that out of projected budget growth annually we can't find 85 billion that isn't in something non-education -_-
So , if I invest in one of these, I could hover it outside the windows of a dorm at USC and then sell the pics online . Right?
No one closes their curtains if they are above the 3rd or 4th floor.
It would be useful in porn or blackmail.
Anyone that can't see problems coming with this has sure been brain-washed by their nanny state puppetmasters.
Ever heard the phrase, "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile"? It is just the next small step to a totally controlled population. Of course, some of our weak kneed personal security at all cost pansies will not see any problems with it.
I wonder how many will get shot down in the first few months they fly over private property? I hope hundreds of them.
And have been for years, it's just now that people are finding out about them. Drones being flown by your neighbors son, trying to peep into your bedroom window, or maybe your daughters bedroom window, or maybe like "Blutowski" above says, peeping in a female dorm window, and wow, look up, he's looking at you'll while you skinny-dip in what you thought was your private swimming pool.
This @!$%# is going to get out of hand quick for the sexual predators, and of course law enforcement. The term "they're watching you," really means something now, but that's cool, some people really believe in that "Patriot Act" thing started back in 2001.
This is so sickening I can barely respond for fear of being annihilated....I do see correlations between the massive push to use these at every corner, every home, every entryway with the push to stop people from owning guns. I see this as far fetched but far fetched has become reality in many ways
Two words:
A police department spent $20,000 for the same thing I bought and built for less than $3,000 including the FPV camera system and video goggels I use. Government waste at its best folks.
I also have a GPS system on mine.
High powered paintball gun should be able to secure your property and privacy. What about a no trespassing order above my house that way they would have no right without warrant. P.S. Google earth has access and provides view of personal property, yet there are exceptions.
With the legal proliferation of these drones in the coming years the biggest threat is that some will be used by a terrorist organization for sabotage or worse....perhaps having armed military drones (capable of shooting other drones down) continually aloft over sensitive areas, such as the White House, is a good idea (provided they cannot be taken over)!
The world of the "terminator" is arriving sooner than expected!
They can't tell friend or foe now.
let them fly ,its a two way street ...or sky ! now let the people use them to spy on the gov't
I feel safer already.
Doesn't it just warm the cockles of your heart knowing the government is so interested in protecting us, they're sparing none of our tax dollars to put drones in our airspace?
Bet your one of the whiners complaining about illegal immigration. Yet here is a perfect tool to fight it. So go ahead and whine.
Scalzo, are you even capable of a civilized conversation? Why does everything have to be a bully response from you?
Besides, we can already see people coming over the border. Perhaps you should go read about what happens when I.C.E. tries to enforce federal law and gets slapped down by the current administration. The ones that were caught were just released by this administration "because of the sequester" a week before the sequester was even in effect.
Because scuzzo is an a*hole.
I am one of those Whiners about Illegals who come here and steal jobs from Real Americans. I am one of those whiners who dislike Illegals and anyone who hires them. I am one of those Whiners who complains about Illegals getting Free Phones. Free education, Free food, Free Healthcare, and I pay for all of my stuff and theres. NOW if the Drones would scan the Borders and shoot at the Illegals as they cross Illegally, I would definitely be for that.
Allen, the current administration has returned more illegals than any other administration. You can look it up. <grins>
It's okay they just want to see inside your windows, actually, some of those drones are so small they can just come in your home and look around.
Matt-3468366
As other posters have pointed out...the vast majority of these drones mentioned are in the hands of private industry, so they have nothing to do with your tax dollars.
Just build the damn wall.
Quote from Obama, " The fence between U.S. and Mexico is practically complete."
Homeland Security says it is 5% complete.
I would not mind seeing these drones over the Mexican border, but, I believe that the rest of the country should be "hands off"! I am sure that we will soon hear, "If you aren't doing anything illegal, why are you so concerned"! The problem is that using these drones to maintain surveillance on American citizens, without proper legal reasons, is a violation of our rights! What's next, a mini-drone will fly into our kitchens to make sure we are not cooking with too much transfat or sugar?
Allen, the "illegals" who were caught by I.C.E. were not "released by this administration" -- they were released because the "sequestration" that even the Right-wing Konservatives insisted on, and allowed to happen, cut the funding needed to keep all those "illegals" in prison.
Try to tell the ENTIRE truth, instead of just the part of it that "happens" to fit into your agenda.
Obama signed it you tool. It's his.
We are going to lose our privacy and we are continuing to lose even more rights with the current person in the white house. Get ready to darken your windows because that will be next, the government looking right into our private lives. They may be useful for some things but they should never be able to fly over any populated areas in order to protect the citizens privacy. I don't even mind them being used to catch illegals.
The only thing they will be protecting is the power of the powerful. Soon after surveillance, they will be used for control/enforcement. No need for notifying the police, just do a "drone strike" on anybody who doesn't act right...
Right jerryb, but the rich being "protected" are the 1% on the left who do not believe that the rest of us are "smart" enough to think for ourselves! They want to get theirs and screw our rights at the same time!
Again it's about privacy - The gov is in your face.
A few months back a group of folks against hunting quail flew one over a hunting clubs private property hoping to get pictures of them shooting. The results were hardly surprising, the quail hunters shot down the drone. LOL
It was a pigeon hunt, but I share your laughter.
From the article:
I see no proof or even some suggestion of it that there are "Tens of thousands" drones out there.
There may be, but as usual, I am not sure where NBC gets their "facts." I guess we are just supposed to believe that news stories always tell the truth.
Oh well, it makes another great headline.
I didn't hear about that one, that is pretty funny, although if you read one of the more recent articles about DHS and their drones, they are trying to get drones that can see at night and tell if you are armed while monitoring communications through a cerain frequency.
So basically, if you're carrying a weapon at night, most likely not see a drone, they could shoot and kill you before you even knew a drone was in the area, which means hunting drones would have to be where they are parked and vulnerable.
Drones, clay pigeons for skeet, i see no difference, except the drones will be more fun to shoot down.. Like skeet shooting with a hunting twist.
If one o'them fancy spy gadgets wanders onto my property, it might just meet ole Joe...a double barrel 12 gauge shotgun.
Don't let papparazzi get their hands on these and commercial licenses.
Kids, no more whirly copters. Take them off the shelves at arcades NOW!!
Ya see folks...it's not about your safety or privacy...it's about the MONEY.
Always is. Money, votes, power!
The police are already using them, and the President had nothing to do with it. Dang, tho, I wish I had money to buy stock in a couple of these companies.
If one finds it's way into the airspace above my yard, I'll use it for target practice with my Daisy wrist rocket!
Great! We can't afford to keep the Government running, but by God.... Big Brother will have his way with us "citizens." If ever there were a good time for target practice, it would be now.
AR-10...locked and loaded
If you shoot one down, could they find you and would it be considered a Federal Offense??
If it over my property, I would say it is fair game. Illegal SEARCH.
You would be picked up under the Patriot act and never seen again for shooting one down.
without regulation, I'd say they're game to be blown out of the sky,,,,
Imagine legislation lagging behind technology! That never happens...
I certainly believe that restrictions and legislation needs to be developed for civilian protections. However, surveillance comes in many, many forms these days. Anyone with a camera on their cell has the ability to violate privacy laws.
I don't believe that drones, like any other form of surveillance, pose any greater danger as long as their use is regulated in the private, city, state and government sectors. I would hope that warrant laws and privacy laws would already take care of most regulatory requirements.
I see lots of potential job opportunities in the near future.
I bet the law is already dubbing the drones as officers and you'll be in for a FELONY if caught shooting one down. I'm going to paint a nice message on my roof for these sicko voyeurs.
Make sure you don't miss, as the gps co-ords will have the shooter location.
Cameras are all over the place now. At stop lights, on businesses, you name it. The Supreme Court, which has been numerically Conservative (5 to 4) for years now, has said that when you are outside the privacy of your home you have a limited expectation of privacy.
blueunicorn
even if they have to look up your skirt! Just try wearing a mask to shield yourself from the prying eyes of the Government ! Picture little people sitting darken windowless rooms watching your every move, ready to sick the SWAT team on you at the first false move...WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
A drone that flies over my house is called target practice.
"...thermal imaging sensors to spot ghosts for a ghost-hunter reality series."
I would have taken this job if I had been that photographer. Someone dumb enough to believe in ghosts deserves to have their money taken.
i think 1984 finally arrived...
Hobbyists have flown cameras loaded on helicopter models for a long time. Now all together, let's get excited. These devices will only be more sophisticated as time goes on. Check out what is sold to hobbyist's. Now off we go to build anti spy rockets with heat seeking sensors.
I'm concerned with the airspace use, altitudes and flight plans these UAVs will maintain. I understand that there is a line @ 400ft AGL (i.e. 'hobbiest') but I have not heard about these larger and longer range UAVs and how the FAA will handle those. I mean if a UAV hits a plane who's fault is it? Major liability concerns abound. If a pilot doesnt know what flight-plan the UAVs will be flying (due to secrecy), how can a pilot avoid somthing that "doesnt have a flight plan" but is actually flying close to me? Will notams be posted for pilots that state 'there is some UAV activity in the area' ...that's alot of help [sarcasm].
Reality is this, unless the FAA mandates a flight-plan for any 'larger' type UAVs there will be accidents if the volumn of UAVs in the sky is what they say it will be. More to the point, why would the government file a flight plan if the mission is secret. Anybody can essentially lookup IFR flights now...although I know some business folks have said they dont want that info published...(i.e. they dont want other people knowing where they're flying to for business), so why let the bad guys know your coming.
The FAA has a serious issue to solve here and I think liabilty concerns will be the crux of the issue. If somebody crashes and burns because of a UAV collision who's to blame? Will the government or commercial entity admit to flying 'secret' or commericial UAVs even in the case of death to the public? Or will they get a 'free pass' from any responsibility, saying it was 'pilot responsibility' to avoid 'my' UAV (those that are pilots know what I mean here), everything is almost always attributed to the pilot, even if the engine falls off...go figure.
That does bring up a scary point - a drone flying in instrument conditions without a flight plan to try to get to its destination undetected. Recipe for disaster. Too small to be detected by a plane's radar/stormscope, but big enough to significantly damage the airplane.
so what is the fine for shooting one down? afterall they are illegal?
when people think they are invading their privacy they are going to use all these guns they been buying and shot the dam things right out of the sky.
living in a wooded area, on acreage in s.w. fl., and bothering no one; i can assure you if i see one, i'll know in fast order wheather or not they taste like chicken.
I have an ATTACK KITE so bring on the drones... hee hee
Boys and their toys
This is some crazy stuff. We will regret this happening to us.
This is indeed Big Brother make no mistake.
As a licensed pilot I find it incredible that these drones are flying in airspace without being approved by the FAA. I will tell you this, I have informed my family that if I ever crash after hitting one of these drones that they are to sue everyone connected with the flight. The person doing the remote flying, the person or company or government agency that owns it and the people that manufactured it. Pilots have to take at least 40 hours of instruction to begin with and recurrent training every year and you have some guy flying the drone that does not even know airspace regulations. Wait until one of them runs into or is run into by a commerical airliner and a few hundred people get killed. Then the doo doo will hit the fan. Get your head out of your butts FAA.
The FAA folks have their heads buried up the asses of the asses in NSA/DHS/the Justice Department/the WH.... etc.
I would think it takes more training to fly, learn something new every day. However, i was reading that there are degree programs for drone operators if you can believe it.