Amazon gets approval of FAA to use drones for its deliveries

#amazondrones #primeair #FAA #JeffBezos Very soon the skies would get overcrowded with drones of Amazon who have been granted approval by the FAA to conduct tests on drones for delivery outdoors. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 20 March 2015.
The US federal regulators Federal Aviation Administration has issued an experimental airworthiness certificate in the light of test flights over private, rural land in Washington State. They have added certain restrictions – namely, the flights must be conducted at 400ft (120m) or below during daylight hours. Amazon had requested for permission to fly at altitudes up to 500ft (150m).
Another condition that Amazon must follow is that the drone must also remain within the line of sight of the pilot and observer and the person entrusted with flying the aircraft must be in possession of a private pilot's certificate and current medical certification.
Moreover, Amazon must also provide monthly data to the FAA on the number of flights conducted, pilot duty time per flight, unusual hardware or software malfunctions and any other information that could be deemed relevant. As per plans of Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, the delivery of packages would be under a program dubbed Prime Air and the company is developing drones that will fly at speeds of 50mph (80kph), operate autonomously and have the ability to sense and avoid objects.
Therefore, be ready to say goodbye to the delivery boys and courier services.

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CNN to add new dimension to news gathering by deploying aerial drones

#newsgathering #CNN #drones #FAA CNN is, reportedly, passing through a bad phase and with 2014 being labeled as the least-watched year since 1996, it is embarking on an ambitious mission of new gathering by deploying aerial drones to capture the news.
It seems the Time Warner-owned company has become a part of a small but slowly expanding group of media and entertainment companies who have got the green light from the US government to start testing unmanned aerial vehicles in its news-gathering and other productions.
As explained by CNN’s senior vice-president, David Vigilante, his network wanted to go beyond hobby-grade equipment and look towards establishment of possible options available and workable in order to produce high-quality video journalism. Use would be made of different types of UAVs and camera setups to deliver the goods.
FAA has said that it recognized the fact that “unmanned aircraft offer news organizations significant opportunities.” Incidentally, BBC has already started to work with drones and CNN’s entry into the world of airborne cameras is late as compared to some of its worldwide competitors. BBC has a full-fledged and trained team of drone operators – the teams include pilots who have got trained for six months to acquire special licenses from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Obviously, drones for news gathering is here to stay.