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Domestic Drones

Yutaka Tsutano

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Betsy/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2003-08-2012.mp3

When I talk to you about drones, I'm mostly likely to evoke a mental picture of a fairly large unmanned aircraft, carefully guided by a crew on the ground, perhaps able to launch missiles, and operating in a foreign theater of war. 
 
That's way out of date.
 
First of all drones are here already. The FAA has 295 active drone licenses in the U.S., although for some reason it won't give anybody a list of what they are. Local law enforcement has some of them.  The first known drone-assisted arrests came last year in Fargo N.D. where the police force got a grant to use old-fashioned Predator drones.
 
U.S. customs and Border Patrol uses them too.
 
But big old clunky drones will soon have agile competition from a new generation of drones the size of a hummingbird or smaller. They can be used for surveillance, journalism, real state photos...well, the very low sky is the limit. More after the news. 
 
Leave you comments below or email colin@wnpr.org or tweet us @wnprcolin.
 
***This show originally aired March 8, 2012***

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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