I heard a rather distraught onlooker yell to the operator of this miniature rotorcraft at one of these live events. On seeing his little aircraft almost tear through the drapes and the neatly-arranged decor at the event space, the operator skillfully manoeuvred this potential killing machine that was now hovering a few feet above people's heads to some other location within the venue, much to the relief of the vexed onlooker.
A few years ago, this would be a sight to marvel at, but the trends in aviation have evolved so much within this short period of time such that drones are now becoming common place.
The drones we see are versatile in terms of the functions the are adapted for. They could be used at weddings, concerts, aerial survey and those that are more advanced are used in military expeditions.
So, what is the history behind these marvels of engineering that have taken the aviation industry by storm?
Let's briefly go back in time to when the first concept of an unmanned aerial vehicle was birthed.
The first known use of aerial vehicles that were unmanned was in 1839 when Austrian forces lay siege on the city of Venice in Italy.
Austrian forces filled the balloons with explosives and launched them against the opposing side .
This was done considering the prevailing wind direction.
When the winds favoured deployment in the direction of Venice, The Austrian soldiers acted accordingly, however, as these ballons had no pilot to control their flight path, many were blown back whenever the winds suddenly changed direction and exploded on the Austrian's own lines!!!!
Some managed to successfully hit the intended targets.
In light of these setbacks, this method of warfare was discontinued, but the principle behind unmanned aircraft was carried forward over the centuries and improved to give us the drones we see today.
It is good to note that flying drones anywhere in the world is carried out under very strict regulations that are provided by the respective civil aviation authorities.
For instance, here in Kenya, the KCAA (Kenya Civil Aviation Authority) has laid down guidelines which are outlined in ' The Civil Aviation (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Regulations, 2019 and these can be downloaded from their website.
A brief outline of these rules include:
Not flying drones over crowds of people.
Respecting people's privacy when flying drones.
Not flying drones over military installations, power plants or other areas that could concern local authorities.
Flying drones only in daylight hours and only in good weather.
Not flying drones near airports or in any area where aircraft are operating.
There are also a number of local drone flying schools where one can get the required licences in order to operate these aircraft.
These include:
Kendrone LTD
Orbital Africa
Astral Aerial Solutions
Fahari Aviation
Danico Drone services
MicroDrone Africa
SwiftLab LTD
In addition to this, market leaders in the supply of drones and related services such as DJI have come up with maps that highlight restriced areas that drones cannot fly over, areas that one has to get authorization, as well as minimum altitudes that one is allowed top operate drones.
An app that is linked to the drone also notifies the operator of when they are about to infringe on restricted airspaces and the operator is able to make adjustments to the flight path of the drone and direct it away from these restricted zones.
An example of such a map is shown below. The concept is adopted from FlySafe Geo Zone Map courtesy of DJI and I re-created it in QGIS.
When all's said and done, I believe drones will definitely be a major game changer in the industry. Most certainly, a number of jobs will be affected both in a positive and negative way but I am excited to see what happens.
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