The major problems with UAV's etc is that no countries regulatory authority is going to allow mixed traffic of manned and unmanned. Where as this may not be too much of a problem in the remote regions of our planet (Newcastle etc). In locations where there is high density population or manned traffic close to the surface, the usefulness of UAV's diminishes.
Jobs in the remote regions of our planet (Norwich), pipeline survey etc can I would have thought be carried out by a UAV adequately, but you always come back to the same old problem with sensor flown aircraft, the "drinking straw", which means that your view of the world is very limited and that something just out of view to the sensor head may be of interest to the operator but ends up being missed. Not ideal when a farmer is digging in fence posts and has'nt got to your pipeline yet.
I would have thought therefore that there are a limited number of jobs that would would be ideal for UAV's and that those of us still in control of and sat in a heavier that air flying machine will still have jobs for a number of years to come
