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Old 09-20-2007, 01:08 PM
  #9  
rickair7777
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This legislation is not refering to pax airliners...it is refering to commercial UAV's which perform surviellance, photography, or possibly serve as airborne telecommunications nodes.

It will take ten years to implement this thing.

After 20 years of trouble-free operations (not a sure thing by any means), they MIGHT start thinking about unmanned cargo planes. Maybe.

But the real kicker here is class B airspace...they might be willing to sacrifice a few private pilots in E or G airspace to midairs, but the first UAV that knocks down an airliner in a class B is going to set their whole program back another 20 years. For that reason, they will be very reluctant and slow to try UAV's at major commercial airports. If they don't have experience with little UAV's in class B, they won't be able to try the BIG UAV's.

Also I doubt any existing airliner (pax or cargo) could be certified as a UAV. They will need a clean-slate design for that (another ten years).

I'm not too worried. However...If you're ten years old cargo might not be the brightest move for you.
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