Pretty Scary Shit - Coming Soon To A Sky Near You

[intaglio]

37. OOOO Skary Droanes! Everybodys panick!

First danger debunk:
The payloads are tiny

Check the size of the drone illustrated, you can do that by looking at the comparative size of the wiring and the camera, it is between 30 and 45 cm across (12 - 18 inches) and that camera is probably close to the maximum payload it can carry. It is black because it is largely uncoloured carbon fibre to reduce weight.

The other drone in the WSJ article looks to have a wingspan of about 1.2 metres (4 foot) and again the camera will be close to it's maximum payload because it will be designed for longer duration flights.

Yes, you can already fit weapons to radio controlled model helicopters (see You Tube) but the flight duration is rubbish, accuracy beyond 20 metres is rubbish and they are noisy because they use those screaming petrol engines

Purposes:
For universities? How about checking pollution incidents, environmental monitoring, traffic flow analysis, wildlife radio tag tracking and probably another 100 uses I cannot imagine.

For the police? Aerial views of car wreck sites, infrared scouting for intruders and lost children, traffic management, tracking criminals to their homes or stashes.

For State and Federal agencies? disaster management, emergency communications in remote areas and following disaster (those are what the very large wingspan, long flight duration varieties are for), pollution monitoring.

All of the above can be accomplished without firing up a very expensive, big, noisy, comparatively non-agile manned helicopter.

Notes
These are not the UAVs used in war zones, they cannot carry the weaponry that makes such UAVs deadly. Such UAVs use Hellfire missiles and, rarely, Gatling style machine guns.

Practising skeet shooting and similar gun fantasies. Sheet move on a predictable course, drones do not. Skeet are less than 20 metres from you, drones are not. Skeet are made of clay, drones are carbon fibre. You know where skeet will come from and know roughly when skeet are to be released, drones not so much. If the Afghans cannot shoot down drones with their vast collection of assorted guns and missiles do you think you will be able to do so?

Although certain States will want to use these to spy into your bedroom (I'm looking at you Kentucky) it is not very likely as [s]most[/s] many legislators might have sexual practises that would, proverbially, make a mink blush.