Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

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Airline Flight Had Close Call With Drone In March

Bart Jansen | USA Today | May 10, 2014

A US Airways commuter flight nearly collided with a drone in March near the airport in Tallahassee, Fla., according to a Federal Aviation Administration official...

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Condom Airborne Meds: 6 Ways Drones Could Change Health Care

Max Blau | STAT | June 13, 2017

Drones have been used to deliver sunscreen to a conference in Palm Springs, Calif., and pizza to a family in New Zealand, but they’re also in the air for far more urgent purposes — such as saving lives. In fact, in some cases, drones could carry defibrillators to heart attack victims faster than an ambulance, according to a paper published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers simulated emergency situations and found they could get automatic external defibrillators to the scene an average of 16 minutes faster by drone than by ambulance...

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Drones and the Future of Disaster Response

Four continental states and one U.S. territory took a beating this fall as one natural disaster after another rocked communities in Northern California and along the Gulf Coast, spreading disaster relief resources and personnel thin as federal, state, and local governments scrabbled to address the crises. Wildfires in California's wine country claimed at least 42 lives, 8,400 structures, and 245,000 acres of land in October. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma pummeled Louisiana, Texas, and Florida only to be followed by Hurricane Maria, which slammed Puerto Rico on September 20 and left much of the U.S. territory without communications systems, electricity, clean water, or functioning hospitals....

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Drones Are More Helpful than Ever in Hurricane-Ravaged Texas and Florida

Thom Patterson | CNN | September 25, 2017

Unmanned aircraft — small and large — swooped in during the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey to get a glimpse of the devastation. That's why insurance companies have been using drone technology more than ever before to quickly -- and safely -- assess damage from the storm. It's only been fairly recently that commercial drone technology has advanced enough to take on this task on a large economic scale. And the insurance industry is just beginning to fully embrace it...

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Drones for Healthcare Powered by 'Open Source'

About a week after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, one of the Direct Relief partnering organizations called Team Rubicon sought to determine the operational status of the Carigara District Hospital, located northwest of the city of Tacloban. Travel along damaged roads was difficult and slow. Yet, the assessment team was able to provide local officials and aid groups with a rapid and highly accurate visual analysis of damage to the Carigara District Hospital by deploying the latest in close proximity aerial imaging technology, using a Huginn X1 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or civil surveillance drone. 

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EnterpriseDB Sees Increase in Government Demand for Open Source Software

Maria Deutscher | Silicon ANGLE | July 23, 2013

Government agencies are increasingly turning to open source technologies in the wake of shrinking budgets and heightened cybersecurity concerns. Read More »

FAA Asks: Please Don't Shoot Down The Drones

Abby Ohlheiser | The Atlantic Wire | July 19, 2013

Earlier this week, one Colorado town floated the idea of letting its residents buy hunting permits for drones. Now, the FAA has responded to the proposal by telling Americans to please stop thinking about shooting down drones. Read More »

Newly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights In US

Jennifer Lynch | Electronic Frontier Foundation | December 5, 2012

Today EFF posted several thousand pages of new drone license records and a new map that tracks the location of drone flights across the United States. These records, received as a result of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), come from state and local law enforcement agencies, universities and—for the first time—three branches of the U.S. military... Read More »

No Existing Technology Can Ensure Drone Safety, GAO Official Says

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | February 19, 2013

No suitable technology currently exists to ensure that drones will “sense and avoid” other aircraft, Gerald Dillingham of the Government Accountability Office recently told lawmakers, adding that the Federal Aviation Administration lacks sufficient dedicated frequency spectrum to operate unmanned aircraft systems in domestic airspace. Read More »

The Brave New World Of Unmanned Vehicles

Vivian Wagner | TechNewsWorld | July 27, 2013

While the FAA, other legal and regulatory agencies, and privacy advocates catch up in terms of the legality and ethics o,f such uses of unmanned vehicles, manufacturers are envisioning a future in which UAVs will be a prevalent part of everyday life. "It's going to spark a lot of creativity," said UAV manufacturer Zenon Dragan. Read More »