Could a drone hit you in the head while walking down the street? Crash into your living room while having dinner with the family?
Those questions and more will take a while to work out, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, as we look and listen for the whirr of small propellers overhead.
Rules and regs for the objects that resemble the bottom of your office chair with a camera or three attached are being hashed out by the agency, according to some news reports over the weekend. It could take up to three years before the regulations are finalized. The little George Carlin voice in my head that deconstructs code words and euphemisms giggled a bit when I read a line that said a drone might not obey its flight plan and wander from its owner — causing the drone to “fly away until it loses power or collides with something.”
Collides with something. Has the potential for injury, no? In January, one of these things crashed onto the White House lawn in the middle of the night after its operator — an off-duty government intelligence official that, published reports said, was drinking and droning. It didn’t hit anyone, but you can’t help but wonder what kind of “intelligence” was at the heart of this late-night frivolity.
Until the technology improves and rules are set, droning will be an unregulated field of interest. I could have devilish fun with one of those, without so much as a drop of liquid courage like our intelligent friend. Locally, I’d put one of those Siamese quadruplet-bowling pins with electronic eyes to great use.
I’d float one each in City Hall and the Warren County Courthouse to check up on things. We need to get a jump on the next, likely smaller, drawing of a sports complex and what property taxes are going to do next year. Perhaps floating drones at tricky intersections in town where people are known to run stop signs and red lights is a good idea, too. It only takes one near-collision behind the wheel to turn to spying. Mind you, it’s out of my typical weekly budget’s reach to do this — prices on base-model and deluxe drones are between about $300 and $800. It’s a daydream that’s interesting enough, though.
President Barack Obama said in a follow-up story in The New York Times the drone that landed at the White House was the kind “you buy at Radio Shack”. In the weeks that have followed, the electronics retailer announced store closings and filed for bankruptcy. Interesting circle of malfunction there, I think.
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Danny Barrett Jr. is a reporter and can be reached by email at danny.barrett@vicksburgpost.com or by phone at 601-636-4545.