AU Aviation Center Gives Drone Demonstration at Capitol
Auburn university's aviation center has been focusing on drones for the past year and half. Today they flew two different kinds over the Capitol lawn to show them off.
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It’s the wave of the future, and it’s already here. With their cutting edge technology, drones are becoming more common, especially for commercial use.
“They can be used in a journalistic mode for coverage. They can be used for law enforcement, for civil engineering, they can measure stock piles, they can measure depths of holes and monitor construction progress,” said Bill Hutto, Aviation Center Director.
While it is legal to register for a drone, there are still a lot of FAA regulations on where you can fly them and for what purpose.
“The administrator is trying to make things happen in a timely manner but it just takes a while to do it. They have classified them as air crafts, so they all have to be registered with end numbers on them just like an airplane and then you got to make sure people know how to fly them safely in the constraints of the airspace,” said Earle Thompson, Aviation program manager.
It’s something the Alabama legislature is talking about. Lawmakers we talked to say they are on board with the new technology.
“We’re trying to learn all we can about the drone program. This is great new technology. It can be used in agriculture, which I am on the agriculture committee, as well as a farmer myself, and I’m real excited about the possibility of the drone use,” said Rep. Richard Lindsey.
Senator Gerald Dial says it comes down to finding the right way to govern them.
“Something we got to be concerned with is that we don’t over regulate to the point that it is not practical to use it, but also have enough leeway in the regulation so that we don’t constraint the opportunity to use them and for our advantage,” said Dial.
