Posted on 08/28/2015 6:54:47 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Feds approve paper airplane drone flights
By Keith Laing - 08/27/15 05:40 PM EDT
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the use of a paper airplane that is a drone.
The agency issued the approval for flights of a drone that is described as a "smartphone-controlled paper airplane." In doing so, it waived requirements for FAA approval of drone flights that are operated outside of restricted airspace and below 200 feet.
The agency said the flights were approved for "aerial photography and videography" purposes.
The makers of the paper airplane drone, Connecticut-based Tailor Toys PowerUp, tout the paper airplane drones as a revolutionary product. "The PowerUp 3.0 transforms ordinary paper planes into smartphone-controlled flying machines," the company says about the devices on its website.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
I’d like to see how one of those actually performs in real life.
Meanwhile, FAA has directed every aircraft entering the SF Bay Area to follow a extremely narrow GPS flight path over my house instead of letting pilots decide where to enter across a wide area. Glad to see FAA is tending to the big problems like regulating paper airplanes.
Next thing you know, some creative drug dealers will be using narcotics-soaked paper to deliver their products via special air delivery vehicles.
I suspect the paper airplane would need to be well shaped, and even then have whatever inherent weather restrictions a weighted paper airplane would have.
Video claimed "up to 60 feet" range of control.
Rudder(?) control said to be effected by tilting the smart phone. That would mean that it's somehow tied into the screen display control of a smartphone? Sort-of borrowing input from that, if you know what I mean.
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