It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's a Drone

The old "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman" may soon be updated to "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Google drone." This week the Wall Street Journal reported that Google acquired a company called Titan Aerospace, a New Mexico company that makes solar-powered drones.

What does a solar powered drone look like?

 Take a look at Titan's Solara

 What might Google want to do with drones?

• Since the 350 lb Solara is purported to be capable of staying aloft  for five years at a time, thanks to a combination of solar panels that keep it aloft during the day and an on-board battery pack, at night, it can definitely capture lot of current images for Google Earth and Google Maps

• Google is also working on an endeavor called Project Loon in which they will send balloons into the atmosphere. These balloons (not your average party balloon) will then beam the Internet to areas of the world who until now have remained in the Internet dark. With an operating range of over 6,500 square miles at a cruising altitude of 65,000 feet,, the Solara can definitely launch its share of balloons.

Can they do this?

Not quite yet, and not quite everywhere. Congress passed a law in 2012 that charged the Federal Aviation Administration with integrating conventionally powered drones into American airspace. To this end, back in January, the FAA selected six universities and government agencies to test civilian versions of the aircraft the military and CIA have been using in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Drones come in all sizes ranging from less than a pound to over 30,000 pounds, so safety standards must also be established. Likewise just because drones are unmanned, as their formal name unmanned aerial vehicle attests, doesn't mean they are un-operated. Licensing standards must  be established for the pilots who "man" them from the ground.

Since the law has set 2015 as the go-to date for getting the UAV's up and circling, it looks like the FAA has a tight schedule.

What Can We Expect after 2015?

The FAA has estimated that within five years of authorization, at least 7,500 commercial drones will be inhabiting the atmosphere. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the FAA has approved 423 applications filed by educational, law enforcement, and military entities. What they intend to do with the drones is presently unknown but most likely related to surveillance.

As UAV technology evolves, drones outfitted with high resolution IP camera surveillance systems would seem to be more adept at monitoring remote pipelines and power lines than the helicopters now serving in that capacity. Other possible IP camera systems applications include

• search and rescue operations
• fire monitoring
• weather reporting
• disaster recovery
• border patrol
• asset tracking
• narcotics raids

Kintronics does not sell drones but we do consult on and sell IP camera security systems so if you have any questions call us at 914-944-3425 or fill out an information request form and one of our sales engineers will reply with the requested info