First successful drone delivery in New Jersey
Australian start-up Flirtey has successfully tested its first ship-to-shore drone delivery in New Jersey. The drone successfully delivered medical supplies to an uninhabited residential area in Hawthorne, Nevada. Flirtey teamed up with Dr. Timothy Amukele of John Hopkins University to plan and conduct a remarkable medical delivery. The tests were performed to check whether drones can deliver medical supplies during natural disasters.
What is a drone?
A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or, in simple terms, a 'flying robot.' Drones are either operated manually from land or by in-built programming. From a long time, drones have been used for surveillance, traffic monitoring, search, rescue and whether monitoring purposes. More recently, drones grew its presence in the market and are used for personal purposes like photography.
Drones for fighting terror
TheU.S. military reportedly created armed drones to kill Osama Bin Laden, the founder of Al- Quaeda in 2000-01. Mohammed Atef , a top commander of Al- Quaeda , is known as the first terrorist to have been killed by a drone attack in November 2001.
Amazon and Google to launch drones for commercial purposes
Since 2013, Amazon has been researching and developing its drone delivery system- Amazon Prime Air. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, said drone delivery would be operationalized by 2017-18. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has also been working on its drone delivery project- 'Project Wing.' Having been successful in testing drones, Amazon and Google sought to change the face of package delivery.
FAA comes up with new laws
In June 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) came up with new laws for the usage of commercial drones. While the U.S. approved the usage of commercial drones, they have not agreed for automated drone delivery. According to FAA guidelines, a commercial drone should weigh less than 25kg, with an average speed under 160kmph and should not fly above 400 ft.
Problems for Amazon and Google
After being successful in testing their delivery drones, Amazon and Google hit a road block under the new guidelines introduced by FAA. Under the new rules, a drone was to be in sight of the pilot, even if it has cameras, and should be flown during specified times of a day. These guidelines have temporarily, if not permanently, brought trouble for drone manufacturers.
Drones gained popularity in India
Most recently, drones have become quite popular in India. The drones are used widely for videography in major sports tournaments and marriages.
