Drone sightings: The rundown on what is being seen and heard

Outside of speculation of any government being behind or aware of the many drones being seen over New Jersey and other areas, there are some potential characteristics of the sightings that may be explained. 

Based on the extensive research conducted for my book “Flying Vehicles: The Emergence of Personal Air Travel, Flying Cars, and Air Taxis,” here are comments based on some of the thousands of reported sightings

“They are very loud, like a Harley.” The rotors of electric aerial vehicles (EAV) are very loud, most notably at closer range. A person flying in an EAV requires ear protection from the noise, it is so loud. Additionally, if a helicopter is in the same area as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), that sound could potentially be mistaken for the sounds coming from a UAV. The larger the drone, the louder the noise.

“They are very quiet.” At a distance, the rotors or propellers of EAVs and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) generally cannot be heard. For example, at one demonstration of EAVs in New York City, media on the ground commented that they could see but not hear the EAV they were watching being demonstrated. A smaller drone can be relatively quiet.

“They are the size of a car.” Industrial-grade drones can be very large and could have propellers at significant distances from each other, potentially portraying great size, which would be accurate though not necessarily with a similar volume of a car. However, there also are very large drones designed for various things, such as transporting cargo. These have been publicly showcased in numerous countries, including China and the United Arab Emirates.

“Our drone got close and then the thing took off and evaded it.” Most EAVs have anti-collision sensing technologies built in, since in the coming electric aerial revolution, there will be thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles flying simultaneously and no one wants them bumping into each other in the air. Drones also have an emergency return-to-home feature, so those could be deployed in the case of a drone being flown by an individual.

“We don’t know where they’re coming from.” Over the weekend, two men were reported arrested for flying a drone too close to Logan Airport in Boston. Using drone tracking technology, police could track the location and altitude of the drone and flight history, leading them to the remote drone operators. Tracking things, including things that fly, is not new and has become very sophisticated. As we wrote in one of my previous books relating to The Internet of Things, “anything that moves can and will be tracked.” This includes things that fly.

To read the complete article, visit IoT World Today.