Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dougbright 4482 days ago
This is simply awesome news for startup/small business UAS operators in the US in the short term. I do have some concern, though, that this could cause the FAA to now rush the rule-making process which could result in half baked, ham fisted regulations. This is especially possible if we see several high profile accidents during this new free-for-all period.

Cheap plug: if you want to play with aerial photography but are more of a software guy than a hardware guy, check out my embarrassingly buggy side project at http://airboss.io. It's an app that lets you use an old Android phone mounted on a drone as a photography/video platform with real-time first person view streaming using WebRTC.

2 comments

You seem to misunderstand you cannot commercially operate a UAS in the US. This is not "awesome news" for all your "disruptive" startups. You cannot "disrupt" the FAA and I highly suggest you do not attempt too; that path is littered with corpses. The FAA does not joke around and your little UAS is no where near up to the 50+ years of standards, processes and regulations in place for modern aircraft. Why do you think new aircraft manufacturers are not popping up every year? The ignorance and complete disrespect for an industry no one of this forumn truly understands is appalling. Your drones are not going to be delivery packages or flying passengers anytime soon (most modern airlines are not flown but "operated" like a giant computer anyways). That is about as close as it is going to get for awhile so dream on.
AirBoss is really neat!

Are you in SF? I'd love to see it in action. Can lend a Moto X for testing if you want to add to the database of phones, too.