| Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology is the wave of | | | | is an inflatable balloon with gas canisters which would |
| the future for many things, not just military | | | | deploy and allow the balloon to float for days away |
| operations. We are using UAVs for border patrol, | | | | from the battlespace area of hostile fire to be |
| wildfire fighting, search and rescue and even | | | | recovered at a time and place of our choosing, as |
| atmospheric weather observation and scientific trend | | | | we may not always have the luxury of altitude, |
| analysis. It is safe to say that UAVs will be around | | | | gliding distance, airports and adequate and safe |
| for a long time and the commercial applications are | | | | terrain to bring the aircraft down. |
| virtually unlimited. | | | | Not long ago, I met a real estate agent who'd gone |
| Recently we have had some problems with UAVs | | | | into the business of taking pictures of people's |
| and their power plants. In fact there have been | | | | ranches, businesses, and commercial properties. He'd |
| in-flight power failures and dead stick autonomous | | | | just come back from the Coast and was taking aerial |
| gliding to land. A Global Hawk, which had an engine | | | | pictures of people's homes from about 300 feet |
| quit did just that. | | | | above the water, and sold those pictures to the |
| There have been some who have suggested that a | | | | home owners who just loved his large prints. Please |
| parachute deploy itself to spare the taxpayers of the | | | | consider all the great uses for UAVs in the future. |
| 3 million dollar loss of such a UAV, these chutes now | | | | Think on this as others are as we speak. |
| exist for light aircraft. Another proposal being floated | | | | |