{"id":104787,"date":"2015-11-22T15:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=104787"},"modified":"2015-11-22T17:25:19","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T15:25:19","slug":"toy-drones-a-risk-to-planes-and-helicopters-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/104787\/toy-drones-a-risk-to-planes-and-helicopters-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Toy drones a risk to planes and helicopters: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study <\/a>published by Aero Kinetics,\u00a0an Aerospace and Defense firm, reveals the safety impact and risks of toy drones in commercial airline airspace.<\/p>\n

The study, entitled \u201cThe Real Consequences of Flying Toy\u00a0Drones in the National Airspace System,\u201d explores how dangerous unregulated\u00a0toy drones can be to the aerospace industry and consumers.<\/p>\n

The conclusion is\u00a0that toy drones post a significant threat to manned rotorcraft in all phases of\u00a0flight, including cruise, based upon their typical operating altitudes.<\/p>\n

The immediate threat to airspace in South Africa is unlikely however, thanks to very strict laws that came into being in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t understand how threatening a toy drone can be. Toy drones\u00a0are not unmanned aircraft,\u201d said W. Hulsey Smith, CEO of Aero\u00a0Kinetics.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake lives are at stake. This study is meant to bring the\u00a0risk into perspective, and inform consumers of the dangers that exist. Safety\u00a0matters, and is the driving force that can bring together the FAA, the aerospace\u00a0industry, and the toy drone industry so that we can find the best ways to\u00a0put meaningful regulations in place for toy drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study examined what will happen when a collision occurs between a toy\u00a0drone and a manned aircraft, including the potential for damage and death. The\u00a0study further compared a toy drone strike with historical data on bird strikes,\u00a0which are proven to cause significant damage to manned aircraft and loss of\u00a0human life.<\/p>\n

2015 saw 13,668 cases of aircraft striking birds and other wildlife, according to an FAA report. The impacts destroyed 67 aircraft, most of them privately owned smaller planes, and caused an estimated $208 million in direct and indirect losses, the report said.<\/p>\n

The study concludes that the impact of a toy\u00a0drone, made of plastic, metal, and engineered materials, with a manned aircraft\u00a0in a collision would be even more catastrophic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe toy drone industry is not regulated in the same manner unmanned aircraft\u00a0are in the aerospace industry,\u201d said W. Hulsey Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a huge risk for\u00a0collisions that not only creates an alarming economic impact for aircraft, but also\u00a0the human factor of losing lives onboard planes and innocent bystanders on the\u00a0ground.”<\/p>\n

The solution, the company said,\u00a0 is multi-fold, including educating the public, doing\u00a0additional testing, creating dedicated operating areas, monitoring air-traffic to\u00a0separate flight space, and understanding and implementing effective standards\u00a0for certification.<\/p>\n

More on drone laws<\/h3>\n

Here is why South Africa\u2019s new drone regulations are ridiculous<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

18 myths about drone regulations in South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

South Africa eyes legalised drones<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cape Town tests crime fighting drones<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

SA drones successful in driving away rhino poachers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study published by Aero Kinetics, an Aerospace and Defense firm, reveals the safety impact and risks of toy drones in commercial airline airspace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":55107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,10819,6130],"class_list":["post-104787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-active","tag-aero-kinetics","tag-faa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104789,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104787\/revisions\/104789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}