Use of UAVs in Today's World

Unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) have been around for several years now. But the use of them in the civilian world is a rather new concept recently. It is something that he being talked about daily in the news and articles on the Internet. It is said that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is set to further open the skies to commercial UAVs in 2015. A few ways the UAVs are being used in the civilian world right now include: Hurricane hunting, 3D mapping, wildlife protection, agriculture, filming movies, and finally search and rescue missions (Carroll, 2013). The worlds largest online shopping website Amazon.com has made statements that they plan to use UAVs in the future for parcel deliveries. According to the FAA encourages civilians that are using a UAV to follow certain guidelines which include: Flown below 400 feet, is kept in sight at all times, not flown within five miles of a airport, not flown around people and weighs 55lbs or less. The FAA states that "Individuals who fly within the scope of these parameters do not require permission to operate their UAS; any flight outside these parameters (including any non-hobby, non-recreational operation) requires FAA authorization" (Unmanned Aircraft Systems). 

I believe that the use of UAVs being integrated into the NAS is inevitable. It is something that will take time to ensure all the kinks are figured out by the FAA. Also, proper training for the use of a UAV needs to be established especially if this grows into something huge. I believe that the publics perception of this happening is not going to go over well. Most people are not open to accept change in something and this is a huge step forward for a lot of everyday jobs and I feel with the use of UAVs this could eliminate some jobs. 

The United States military application of UAVs has been very present in the middle east since the World Trade Tower attacks in September 2001 and by October 2001 under the Bush administration the U.S. had their drones ready to go in the middle east (Drones, 2014). The use of military drones I find to be very ethical for numerous reasons. The ground battlefield has our military in close range of other countries military allowing both parties to see if they have killed someone and usually this results in PTSD in a lot of veterans. Also, another hugs factor is that with the use of drones this eliminates the need for strong presence of our military on the ground, which in turn could save lives. 

There are several job openings currently for both flight and management students whether you would like to be on the civilian side of it or go into the military side. For flight students there are offerings for instruction/training, and "pilot" positions. If one was going into management there are jobs available as a project manager and program manager to just name a few. 

There are several job listings for UAVs the website below has hundreds of possible careers for both flight and management students. 

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=+Unmanned+Vehicle&l

References

Carroll, J. (2013, June 7). Five ways UAVs are being used by civilians. Retrieved February 26, 2015,                   from http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2013/06/five-ways-uavs-are-being-used-by-civilians.html

Drones. (2014, August 11). Retrieved February 26, 2015, from      http://drones.procon.org/#background

'Model Aircraft Operations'. (2015). Retrieved February 28, 2015, from           https://www.faa.gov/uas/model_aircraft