Now then. This drone hype is really taking off. Check this out:

Take a ride in the Ehang 184 autonomous helicopter drone

A drone capable of transporting one person. Sets you back about $200.000 but hey, it is so easy to fly that any chopper pilot should fear for his job.

This Ehang drone will take humanity directly to the age of the Jetsons.
Found this youtube movie:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGd1Oy7Cw0

It shows how easy the controls are. You actually have a button: "takeoff" and "land"!

All controlled by your Ipad via an app in the appstore! :E

Hmmm. No sign of a button marked "autorotate", then ?

Toddler lost an eye after drone went out of control:

Toddler loses an eye after consumer drone spins out of control

Covered by the BBC as well:

Toddler's eyeball sliced in half by drone propeller - BBC News

ouch..................

Nasty. Surprised it's not happened more often yet.

Uuummmhhh how does an unmanned aerial vehicle (a drone) transporting a person, who 'çontrols' it, continue to remain unmanned?

Given that (as far as I can see) it has fixed-pitch props I think it's unlikely that it has one...

PDR

I think chopper pilots everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief... I read a few articles about it and the company that makes it has yet to put forth much in the way of operation and control information and even video of it transporting a person is limited to shots of a few seconds.
Basically there are a lot more question than answers right now. As cool as the concept is, I'm guessing there is a truckload of development still left as there are still obvious safety issues such as lack of guards for finger eating blades and the already mentioned auto rotation. Or the same questions that perplexes fixed wing auto flight such as AI capable of see and avoid... and the bit about it automatically conversing with ATC? Ha! I'd like to listen to that conversation to JFK controllers as they machine gun out ,"Attention, drone delta uniform mike one one, ya have traffic on yer left, hold-er position." ...and then ... in soft lady voice that all automated phone menu have ,"I'm sorry [pause] I could not quite understand that, let's try that again. Would you please repeat that last phrase, [pause]or if you like, please wait a moment to speak directly to the operator."

This is actually a very valid question. Much of the safety/certification issues for UAS are based on not having to worry about persons on board. There are several 'optionally piloted vehicles' or unmanned passenger carrying UAS such as Making Unmanned Search And Rescue A Reality: Unmanned K-MAX® Helicopter Conducts First Collaborative Casualty Evacuation · Lockheed Martin and Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) Helicopter UAV - Army Technology and these provide problems for the safety people.

Importantly, there is considerable concern over 'autonomous' UAS. ICAO is insisting they are Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPV) as is the FAA. The major problem inhibiting the use of these vehicles is the total mistrust of them by the ANSP safety groups. Not to mention understandable pressure from IFALPA, not only on the jobs front but also concern about being 'in the pattern' with an automated UA that will not have the same reactions as a manned aircraft.

Some of these issues will not be simple to solve, which is frustrating for the engineers who often do not really understand the safety issues that are raised by UAS.

Departed out of New York last night with a report, via PIREP, of a drone @ 5,800' on the coast to the east.

Was anybody hurt?
Did the airliner crash?


........or was it much like seeing a bird fly by?

Tourist just reporting what occurred for info.

You are obviously not a pilot or you would realise birds don't fly that high at night (with the possible exception of geese using mountain wave during migration). I did have a night time birdstrike out of Miami once at about 1,000', fairly sure it wasn't a drone...but still made a loud thud as it hit the windscreen! A drone, I fear, would be much louder.

Don't they?

I must admit that I assumed that birds were not really night flyers until I started using NVG's and then I was very surprised how many were around.

How did they ID it as a drone at night incidentally?

Was it lit up?

Well, birds don't generally have coloured strobes.

SLF
 

SLF speaking: as a piece of SLF? :p

SCNR :)

Actually, I think technically we're not that far from man-carrying drones. I think they can be kept stable quite easily (see how a high end DJI behaves in windy conditions) and can be made man-carrying (see Volocopter, still in development, but they're on a good way).

The question that remains is how to control them, and what license do you need to ride in one? (I'm saying ride, since it's obviously not a heli, but something highly computer controlled)

on the BBC website today
 

Drone register gives 'accountability' says FAA

A new US drone register will help promote a "culture of accountability" the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Michael Huerta has told BBC Click.

Existing drone owners have until 19 February 2016 to put their details online. Anyone who does not comply could face heavy fines.

The FAA has said that in "severe cases" of drone abuse a criminal prosecution could result in a $250,000 (£175,000) fine and a maximum of three years in prison.

But the SLF is not just SLF. They decide on the route, they decide on take off and landing point and so on. So the SLF is not just along for the ride but consciously decides when and where to land and instructs the "aircraft" to do so.
Until a different definition comes along these are not UAVs but manned aircraft with all the necessary licensing that comes with that.
IMHO of course :8

A very relevant article here from the UK perspective

Drones involved in near misses at UK airports - BBC News

As I posted earlier optionally manned and CASEVAC UAS are already in use. So far they have not been licensed commercially. (Boeing Littlebird for example and Lockheed's K-MAX-CASEVAC UAS. ) I would think that the licensing and safety regulation people will be putting these into the 'too difficult pile' for quite a while.

A catastrophic collision with a personal small drone might make a small dent in the wing leading edge much like hitting a bird. Let's worry about something a little more worth our concern.

Drone racing?
 

Here's something non-destructive about drones. Some people are apparently putting big money into drone racing. This video presents the organization's dream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3886eVPR48

Here's another video of the reality of the first race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Srlx9bHsM

I think the aviation side of things is just going to let the far larger automobile sector iron out the legal kinks first.

Hmmm...

So we have two airliners - one at 2,000 feet and the other at 4,000 feet "during take off". I'll defer to the bus-drivers on here, but would I be right in thinking that ya typical aerobus will be doing well over 200mph in that phase of flight? Let's call it 100m/sec.

To see an object and explicitly identify it as a "drone" you'd need to be within, what, 200m of it? Now I know airline pilots are living gods with all the omnipotence and omniscience that goes with it, and call me a cynic if you wish, but I have real trouble believing that in the two seconds between initial visibility and passing "within feet" even an airline pilot couldn't accurately identify the object which he/she believes went past the window. It could just have easily been a bird, a party balloon or the consequences of last night's crew-party in the hotel.

Once upon a time it was UFOs - now to pilots everything is a drone. Tell you what - fit a dashcam and let us all see what bit of airborne flotsam you're calling a drone this week...

PDR

Another hawkeyed pilot - at 285mph (~130m/sec) the alleged drone must have been identifiable for no more than 1.5 seconds even if we assume it was spotted at the earliest opportunity.

So how can he/she have been sure it was a drone...?

:hmm:

PDR

Within 50m, according to the Airprox report (though that's still pretty d*mn close).

Appears to have been a Ryanair flight.

Thank you for the compliment; we do try to live up to your expectations ;)

There's a lot to be seen in a blink of an eye.

You're welcome!:)

yes, I'm taking a little bit of the mick, as they say. But do you accept the cause of my scepticism on this? I still haven't had a considered response on how such an accurate identification can so often be arrived at from such a short glimpse. All the more so in that last case as it turns out that the closest point of approach was 50m away...

PDR

Dutch Police Training Eagles to Take Down Drones
 

The Dutch National Police are attempting to train eagles to take down drones.

Dutch Police Training Eagles to Take Down Drones - IEEE Spectrum

PDR1: I like your thinking, but come to a different conclusion. If they had been looking at the right direction, it is entirely possible.

FD.

Play around and stop the clip I embedded, with a watch at hand. 0,6 sec is plenty for MkI eyeball to recognize things.

The vast majority of purchased off the shelf drones will can not fly near airports, the four big manufacturers have implemented no fly zones, each drone carries a database of forbidden GPS co ordinates and the drone just won't enter that airspace.

There are still a few custom made machines that can.

Report on BBC news that Manchester airport has had infringements of its airspace by drones. It has asked operators to be more vigilant and stay clear. Wow.
Yet paragliders, parameters, sailplanes will all be penalised severely if they created the same offence.
I can almost guarantee that when there is the first mid-air collision there will be an all out hunt for the owner. Following that, successful or not, there will be a drive for registration so that owners can be identified.
Owners who operate sensibly & legally can not have any objection to registration when they purchase a drone, other than cost. Where it will be difficult to enforce is when people buy them via internet from an overseas supplier.
Given that we are in a proactive accident prevention environment I wonder why there is such a lackadasical response.
This is not a prohibition or even a restriction on drone operations; it's simply a means to identify those who act irresponsibly in a life threatening environment.

Agree, the UK / Europe needs a Drone registration programme, RF ID chips could be embedded in every new drone sold to trace ownership. Currently drone manufacturers can trace drones via serial numbers to customers/distributors.

Reckless flying - This is a accident waiting to happen, as I posted before the majority of bought "off the shelf" drones cant fly near airports, there is currently blocking software. Its the tiny number of custom built machines that can.

Perhaps if stiffer penalties were enforced on reckless drone flying along with those who feel its fun to laser aircraft.

Perhaps because there is evidence (the evidence being that they have taken down aircraft or been taken down by aircraft) that the above are actually a threat to airliners?

Until a single shred of evidence is produced that small toy UAVs are a threat, then perhaps they should be left alone?

There are currently millions of untrained people flying quadcopters around the planet.
As far as I'm aware there is not one single case of confirmed collision yet, let alone a collision that caused life threatening damage on an airliner.

I fail to see how registering drones will help in the majority of cases.


If it just flies around, causing a nuisance and causing aircraft to take avoiding action, then lands again in a field and disappears before it can be reported or found, how is that any easier to trace than unregistered drones.

Unless it has a unique tracking code that is transmitted at all times and can be detected by radar.

Hows about a Mode C transponder, so ATC with an SSR radar can advise aircraft if there is a danger, and TCAS can at least pick it up also.
And if people don't want to pay for the cost of that, then buy a smaller drone that has the controls limited to say 50 metres line of sight, like a remote control toy.

Anti-drone eagles
 

Police 'ponder eagles to tackle drones' - BBC News

Interesting, and probably quite effective. Although more use in the quoted prison environment, than flying an eagle on airport approaches.

They can't really be serious.

Not sure why, but "she swallowed a spider to catch a fly" keeps running round my head......