The story around here has been the sighting of multiple large drones over the state. The FBI is involved. The FAA is involved. Probably the Secret Service because of Trump International. So far no explanations. Tonight my local Facebook pages have been filled with new videos. Apparently the aliens have been very busy tonight. Yesterday it came out that a medevac helicopter couldn’t land for a patient because of drone activity. These don’t appear to be little quadcopters that private citizens are likely to have.
There is certainly an element of hysteria going on. I’m sure some regular planes are being mistaken for drones by witnesses. However there isn’t any denial from any authority about what is going on like I would expect if this was fake.
TheSneezingMonkey has a channel on YouTube devoted in part to explaining UAPs and the linked video talks about the current NJ flap. (People are taking video of planes and they think what they’re seeing is drones.)
By the way, in his video, he says that people are saying they’re not planes, but plane shaped drones (wouldn’t that make them RC planes?). (Commentary about the general public deleted because this isn’t the Pit.)
I’ll have to do some research to answer this more fully, but I can tell you that there are drones designed in airplane configuration rather than the quad-copter layout one usually associates with drones.
The FAA Part 107 study guide contains information about aerodynamic stalls, which is not a situation that typically applies to quad-copters. So they seem to want drone pilots to understand fixed-wing aerodynamics, at least at the kindergarten level. There are questions about this on the Part 107 knowledge test too (though interestingly, nothing about vortex ring state and other more esoteric features of rotary wing aerodynamics that can affect quad-copters).
Off the top of my head, an RC aircraft is distinguished from an sUAS by having no automation. That is, they are only flown through direct pilot inputs. Whereas drones can be pre-programmed and perform some flight maneuvers autonomously. From a regulatory standpoint, there is some sort of carve-out in the regs for RC, but I’ll have to look it up.
All that to say, it seems plausible that people are seeing drones, be they airplane or quad designs. But it could be a lot of other things too.
I live right in the area where this is happening and I’ve dismissed these stories as overblown as well. But last night I just happened to glance out my living room window and lo and behold there was one of these things flying right over my neighborhood. It was definitely NOT a plane or a helicopter. It didn’t seem menacing, but it was unlike anything I’ve seen before over my house. If I’d seen a group of them in formation I’d certainly be a bit creeped out.
I find it unfathomable that the authorities don’t know who is responsible for all this. Is that remotely possible? At some point isn’t there a public-interest case to be made for the perpetrators to be stopped? Or is it truly a free-for-all in the skies? And whoever it is, why aren’t the operators coming forward and saying hey, my bad, don’t worry it’s just us doing…whatever?
I can definitely confirm this; I have flown many different fixed-wing drones professionally for mapping and modeling large-scale developments (surveyor, both for residential projects and for the fossil fuel industry).
Several years ago there was a lot of drone talk in the state. Turned out it was a mapping project. The difference was the answer came pretty quickly. So far all the way up to the governor there is no answer besides “Don’t panic.”
Today just after dark I saw something that fits the description. I have aviation experience (my profile pic is my cite) and I’ve never seen anything like it. It did not have the lighting that is required on private or commercial aircraft. It was at most 200 feet up and big. I have no idea what it was.
Wow, maybe I’m educated by living in the landing/take off pattern of some kind of airport for most of my life, but I can’t imagine mistaking a large aircraft for a drone.
Oh well, people often get themselves worked up when something is in the news. At least it’s not Bigfoot reports.
I remember when “a satanic portal has opened up over the White House” and it was nothing more than a lens artifact, a street light reflected in a raindrop.
NJ.com quotes drone professor Pramod Abichandani, director of the Advanced Air Mobility Lab at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
“To me,” he said, “the simplest explanation is the correct explanation.”
He believes the drones probably belong to commercial or U.S. military operators. Whatever entity owns the drones would likely have significant money and staff to fly so many drones for many hours for many days, he said.
That’s especially true when flying drones in groups, known as swarms, which is technically challenging.
The lighting and swarming of the drones give them the sort of profile that suggests the perps are not casing houses or agents of foreign governments, according to the professor.
Then why aren’t the operators of the drones making a statement that will quash the speculation and theorizing? If they aren’t intending to cause mischief, they’d better do something soon because they are causing it anyway. They can’t possible be unaware of the near-mass-hysteria they are causing.