Defence firms, police forces and fire services are among more than 130 organisations that have permission to fly small UAS in UK airspace, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
The Civil Aviation Authority list of companies and groups that have sought approval for the use of the unmanned aircraft systems, UAS, has not been published before – and it reflects the way the technology is now being used. The BBC, the National Grid and several universities are now certified to use them – as is Video Golf Marketing, which provides fly-over videos of golf courses.
Including multiple or expired licences, the CAA has granted approval to fly small UAS more than 160 times.
“People are going to see more and more of these small aircraft operating around the country,” said John Moreland, general secretary of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association (UAVS), a trade body with more than 100 members. “There are any number of uses for them, and the technology is getting easier to use and cheaper all the time. These vehicles can operate anywhere in the UK, within reason.”
In the last two years the CAA has required anyone who wants to fly a small UAS in British airspace to apply for permission. The aircraft must weigh less than 20kg and operators have to abide by certain rules. These include not flying them higher than 122 metres (400ft), or further away from the operator than 500 metres – this is deemed the pilot’s “line of sight”.
The CAA list shows that three police forces, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Essex, have permission to use UAS, as do three fire services, Dorset, West Midlands and Hampshire.
Some of Europe’s biggest defence companies can also fly them, including BAE Systems, Qinetiq and missile manufacturer MBDA. A company that supplies UAS and other equipment to the Ministry of Defence, Marlborough Communications, is also registered, along with crime-scene and counter-terrorism specialist GWR & Associates.
Shane Knight, a spokesman for Marlborough, said: “If you can put these systems up in the sky, and they are safe, then they have many uses. If you are a police force, a fire or ambulance service, and, for instance, you are responding to a large fire, then you have a choice of sending out your people to do reconnaissance of an area, or you could use one of these small UAS. Why put people in danger when you can use one of these systems? These UAS are getting much better, and much smaller.”
The National Grid uses them to inspect power lines, while the Scottish Environment Protection Agency wants one to patrol and photograph remote areas, said Susan Stevens, a scientist in the agency’s marine ecology department. “The UAS equipment is currently being trialled,” she said.
“As an operational service it will have many uses, such as capturing aerial imagery of estuaries, wetlands and riverbanks, and to provide a snapshot of the environment before and after development work,” she said.
Moreland said the unmanned systems suffered from the perception that they were all “killer robots” flying in the sky, but he thought this would diminish as the public got used to seeing them.
“We are going to see all sorts of systems coming out over the years,” he said. “The operating bubble is going to expand like mad. Some of these systems will be able to look after themselves, and others will rely on the quality of the operators.
“You don’t have to be a qualified pilot … The person could come from a modelling background, or he may be a video game player. There are plenty of people you could imagine being able to control these systems in a delicate way.”
Gordon Slack, who owns Video Golf Marketing, said he had taught himself to use his UAV. “Once you know how to operate it, it is not too complicated. We’ve done six videos for golf courses, with a few more in the pipeline.”
Source: The Guardian
Times have certainly changed since this article was written. Then, 160 approved companies had access to the skies, now it numbers in the thousands, with tens of thousands more doing it completely illegally. There needs to be some regulation and fast.
Hopefully, apart from the legal side of things, what will seperate the men from the boys isn’t whether they are legally flying the drone, but whether their camera work is actually marketable.