Monday, 6 April 2015, OTTAWA - Even while the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approached the use of commercial drones in United States airspace with great caution granting only 69 commercial drone authorizations to date, perhaps mindful that more than a few presumably amateur use drones nearly have collided with large commercial aircraft including as previously reported here in the Ninth Amendment at New York's Kennedy International Airport (JFK) with several near potential disasters involving passenger airliners in a period of a few days, the Canadian government has embraced the testing and use of commercial drones throughout that country with Transport Canada headed by Minister Lisa Raitt last year alone apparently enthusiastically issuing more than 1,600 permits for the widespread use of commercial unmanned drone aircraft in that country which already are deployed actively in Canadian airspace reportedly by about 110 commercial drone companies regularly in use by the movie and television industry, oil and gas companies, forestry companies and farmers. Government including military and surveillance use was not mentioned.
The Guardian newspaper has identified a British Columbia secret Amazon experimental drone test base in sight of the United States border but with neither that paper reporting nor Amazon revealing its exact location. Canadian enthusiasm for the "tiny helicopters" also is reflected by an Alberta-based unmanned aircraft test center run by a nonprofit group as well as a research and test center in Quebec run under the auspices of an unidentified party or entity.
Robert Kendall the executive director of the "educational and industry group" Unmanned Systems Canada is hopeful of the potential for the export of Canadian experience and use of commercial unmanned drones into the United States with what he expects will be the FAA's eventual approval of their "widespread" use in the U.S. Meanwhile he claims that Transport Canada has a significant advantage in authorizing commercial drones use as in his estimation the United States has about twenty (20) times more air traffic than Canada citing increased "risks" in the U.S. presumably of the possibility of disastrous air crashes including those such as have nearly occurred with large commercial aircraft in the U.S. such as those above-cited reported near misses at JFK aircraft in which concerned pilots voiced their fears that even the presumably amateur drones could easily bring down large commercial airliners with devastating consequences.
Readers interested in more information can go to the link below to the New York Times blog on the subject of Canadian enthusiasm for commercial drone experimentation, testing, development and use first published in the Times within the past week which also contains links therein to the above-mentioned Guardian newspaper article as well as links to information about the referenced Alberta and Quebec commercial drone centers.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/in-canada-unabashed-wooing-of-commercial-drones/?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
The Guardian newspaper has identified a British Columbia secret Amazon experimental drone test base in sight of the United States border but with neither that paper reporting nor Amazon revealing its exact location. Canadian enthusiasm for the "tiny helicopters" also is reflected by an Alberta-based unmanned aircraft test center run by a nonprofit group as well as a research and test center in Quebec run under the auspices of an unidentified party or entity.
Robert Kendall the executive director of the "educational and industry group" Unmanned Systems Canada is hopeful of the potential for the export of Canadian experience and use of commercial unmanned drones into the United States with what he expects will be the FAA's eventual approval of their "widespread" use in the U.S. Meanwhile he claims that Transport Canada has a significant advantage in authorizing commercial drones use as in his estimation the United States has about twenty (20) times more air traffic than Canada citing increased "risks" in the U.S. presumably of the possibility of disastrous air crashes including those such as have nearly occurred with large commercial aircraft in the U.S. such as those above-cited reported near misses at JFK aircraft in which concerned pilots voiced their fears that even the presumably amateur drones could easily bring down large commercial airliners with devastating consequences.
Readers interested in more information can go to the link below to the New York Times blog on the subject of Canadian enthusiasm for commercial drone experimentation, testing, development and use first published in the Times within the past week which also contains links therein to the above-mentioned Guardian newspaper article as well as links to information about the referenced Alberta and Quebec commercial drone centers.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/in-canada-unabashed-wooing-of-commercial-drones/?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
Copyright 2015 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
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