FAA Grounds L.A. Sheriff's Drone Air ForceFederal officials say the sheriff didn't have the OK for a media demonstration
of his surveillance drone.By Lynn Doan and Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writers
June 22, 2006
The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily shot down Los Angeles County
Sheriff Lee Baca's plans to launch unmanned surveillance drones to monitor crime.
The Sheriff's Department has been working for seven years with a defense contractor
to build SkySeer, a 3-foot-long remote-controlled model airplane with a 6 1/2 -foot
wingspan and tiny video cameras that can fit in the back of a patrol car when
disassembled.
<snip>
The project hit a milestone last week when the Sheriff's Department performed its first
demonstration for the media — showing the plane take off, beam its video images 250 feet
to deputies below and then landing.
But the test raised the ire of FAA officials, who said they had told the Sheriff's
Department a week earlier that it could not fly the drones without receiving a
certificate of authorization from the agency.
<snip>
Full article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-drone22jun22,1,6812639.storyRelated thread:
Sheriff to Test Drone for Crimefighting
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