Here is an interesting story pulled off of the Bloomberg news site. What is your opinion on this? Do you think this could have been done in a safe manner? Such has having the drone take off from the side lines following a clear path out to the center of the field, dropping the ball at the center line without flying over anyone? Or do you think the risk is too great to have a multirotor flying in an area with that many people sitting around the flight path? give us your comments below.
By Alan Levin
When does a drone get grounded? When it becomes a political football.
The University of Michigan Wolverines canceled plans to use an unmanned aircraft to deliver the game ball tomorrow before kickoff against the University of Utah at its Ann Arbor stadium after talking to U.S. aviation regulators.
The planned flight at the biggest college football stadium was news to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has only approved limited drone operations also known as unmanned aerial systems.
“The FAA promotes voluntary compliance by educating UAS operators about how they can operate safely under current regulations and laws,” the agency said today in an e-mailed statement.
After explaining its rules on drones — and pointing out that the agency had also approved a temporary flight restriction over the stadium during the game — the school backed down, FAA said in the statement.
Even as technology behemoths Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. develop
drone delivery systems and thousands of people buy small, easy-to-fly unmanned copters, the FAA remains wary and hasn’t permitted commercial flights outside Alaska. Pilots flying drones solely for recreation may do so as long as they follow safety guidelines, which include staying away from crowds.
Record Crowds
That wouldn’t be easy at Michigan Stadium. It seats 109,901, according to a university press release. Known as The Big House, it regularly exceeds that with standing-room-only fans and holds all records for the top 25 football crowds since 1948, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The 2-1 Wolverines are staging a pre-game airshow to celebrate the school’s aerospace engineering program’s 100th anniversary, according to a university press release. Fly-overs will feature a World War II bomber, vintage fighters and a biplane.
Derek Satterfield, a spokesman at the school’s athletic department, confirmed in an interview yesterday that part of the festivities included plans for a drone to carry the pigskin to the field.
Satterfield said he didn’t know details and requested written questions. He didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail.
Daniel Ellis, the founder and chief executive officer of Ann Arbor-based SkySpecs LLC, said in an interview that a drone built by his company was to be used in the event.
Legal Challenges
Ellis declined to discuss the flight because he said the information was embargoed until 3:30 p.m. local time tomorrow, when the nationally televised game is scheduled to start.
The politics of when and where drones may be flown has become a growing issue at the FAA.
Even as Congress has ordered the agency to begin introducing unmanned flights into the skies by next year, some lawmakers have urged the agency to go slow because of privacy concerns. At least 68 groups began lobbying Washington on unmanned aircraft policy in 2012 and 2013, according to reports reviewed by Bloomberg.
At the same time, the FAA has struggled to enforce its drone rules and has faced legal challenges to its authority.
Its first attempt to fine a drone pilot was overturned March 6 by an administrative law judge who found the agency had no legal standing over small unmanned craft. The agency has appealed the decision.
In spite of FAA’s stance that commercial drone use isn’t permitted, they have been used to film movies by Martin Scorsese and sporting events for Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Levin in Washington at alevin24@bloomberg.net
