Model Airplanes

Earlier this week, we reported on proposed drone regulation from the Trump Administration that would allow federal officials to track, reroute or destroy your drone if needed. Now, we receive news from France where similar, but perhaps less drastic, new drone legislation and regulation is in the works as well. If the new rules come into effect, remote drone identification may become a reality for French drone pilots as soon as July 1st, 2018. Luckily, popular (pro)consumer drones such as the DJI Spark, Mavic Air, and Mavic Pro would be exempt.

DJI Inspire 2

Remote drone identification

The French drone site, HelicoMicro, reported that the French Federation of model airplanes (Fédération Française d’Aéromodélisme) had just published 3 draft documents (1, 2, 3) that outline the new drone requirements if they become law.

The initial proposed French ‘drones law’ is from 2015 and it did not make any distinction between the difference in size and weight of the various unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that are on the market. A later proposal from 2016 is an adjusted version of the same package but limited to drones that weigh 800 grams or more. This equates to 1.76 Lbs for us in the US and means that drones such as the DJI Mavic Spark, Air, and Mavic Pro would be exempt from this new rule. The Mavic Pro weighs 1.62 lbs (734 g)  according to DJI’s website and just makes the cut. Phew! A Phantom 4 Pro

Article source: https://dronedj.com/2018/04/11/french-drone-regulation/

The French Federation of model airplanes (Fédération Française d’Aéromodélisme) has updated a 2015 proposal for hobby drones regulations. 

In this new draft, the federation is urging lawmakers to force drone manufacturers to implement various components allowing authorities easier access to information on the device, like the unique identification number, position, and more. Should this turn from proposal to implemented law, recreational drone pilots in France would be affected as early as July 1 of this year. 

According to Drone DJ, the federation has published three documents regarding this proposal (1, 2, 3), with each one detailing the various requirements and implementations should they become law. Overall, the suggested requirements revolve around authorities being able to remotely identify a drone and having an embedded signaling light. The concern over remote identification has been a common one, both here and abroad, as governments are eager to establish clarity regarding just exactly who is operating what kind of aerial vehicle in their airspace.  

As for which kinds of UAVs would be affected by this new iteration, it took a few years to arrive at the newly drafted suggestions. The original 2015 proposal reportedly didn’t distinguish between the weight or size of a UAV, and would’ve required any hobby drones operating outside to undergo its strictures. 

The 2016 draft specified that only drones weighing more than 1.76 pounds would

Article source: http://www.thedrive.com/tech/20063/proposed-french-drone-regulation-would-require-remote-identification

Like many cliches, “flying under the radar” has a literal, real-world history. As the new object-detection technology proliferated in the years after World War II, military pilots knew it had trouble seeing things at low altitudes, where buildings and hills severely limit its range. And so pilots would hug the terrain, flying beneath the radio waves that would detect their presence.

For the most part, that low-level limitation has been tolerable (unless, of course, you were the target of the aerial attack in question), and hasn’t slowed the growth or hurt the safety record of the airline industry that came to rely on the systems for safe passage through crowded airspace. But aviation is bracing for a variety of twists and turns that will change what flies where—and how we look at it. Drones will cross the skies delivering pizza, coffee, or sneakers. Flying cars will whisk passengers across town. Automated search and rescue vehicles will fan out to find lost hikers.

As compelling as these visions are, the vehicles can’t stay invisible to the air-traffic-control systems that need to track them and keep everybody safe. Though conventional mechanical radar systems—those large dishes that rotate in endless circles—will still form the backbone of aviation tracking systems for the foreseeable future, new tools will have to help fill in the blind spots.

And so Raytheon set its sights a bit lower. The defense contractor has developed a low-power radar it says can fill in the gaps missed by

Article source: https://www.wired.com/story/raytheon-radar-drones