Schiffer Publishing has released “Enter the Drones: The FAA and UAVs in America.”
The book details how UAVs — unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely piloted aircraft, drones, unmanned aerial systems, the labels vayr — are a disruptive technology on par with computers and smartphones.
Present since soon after the dawn of manned aviation, they have become controversial only in recent times.
In the United States, drones have been painted with a broad brush as having a warlike past, and civil liberties organizations warn of their impact on individual privacy rights.
However, a promising new industry beckons — UAVs can be useful for farming, filmmaking, law enforcement and sundry other missions, according to the book.
Entrepreneurs and aerospace manufacturers alike want them freed to fly for commercial purposes, and the US Congress has answered with a mandate to make that happen. Caught in the middle is the staid, bureaucratic Federal Aviation Administration, whose sacred mission is to protect the safety of America’s skies.
Enter the Drones cuts through the hyperbole over UAVs to explain the considerable challenges the FAA faces.
The 192-page book, which contains 61 photos, sells for $29.99.
It was written by Bill Carey, who began his professional career as a newspaper reporter and for the past decade has worked in the aviation trade press. He has written extensively about unmanned aerial vehicles, initially as editor-in-chief of Avionicsmagazine, and more recently as senior editor with Aviation International News, based in Washington, DC.