tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/civil-aviation-42982/articlesCivil aviation – The Conversation2021-02-01T15:25:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1542082021-02-01T15:25:01Z2021-02-01T15:25:01ZNairobi’s airports – windows on Kenya’s colonial past and top-down planning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381655/original/file-20210201-15-18b30bz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The plane carrying UK's Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh arrives at Eastleigh Airport in Nairobi in February 1952.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by: Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Airport histories can be surprising. Changes to airport names may conceal stretches of their past. Thus, the colonial roots of two of Nairobi’s three airports are opaque. Each of the three has taken a turn as the prime international gateway to Kenya.</p>
<p>During the 1930s, Wilson Airport, to the southwest of Nairobi, was the only city airport. It was set up by Kenyans for local flying – still in its infancy – in the colony. It became a stopping place on the new air route operated by Imperial Airways (predecessor of British Airways) across Africa.</p>
<p>During World War II, a second, bigger airport was developed east of the city centre on vacant land at Eastleigh. The airport was built initially as a colonial air force outpost, but was soon shared by civilian airliners.</p>
<p>In the 1950s, a third and even bigger site was developed at Embakasi, further out from and southeast of Nairobi city centre. After independence from Britain in 1963, this airport was developed into the current Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02665433.2020.1858944">paper</a> on the colonial planning of airports in Nairobi, I discuss the decision-making processes around the three airports. The research offers a glimpse of how colonial economic and political considerations affected airport provision. As the colonial power, Britain would have been expected to plan airports easily to suit its needs. But after World War II, Britain – and Kenya – faced financial austerity.</p>
<p>My research shows that planning was actually slow and fraught, especially when Britain declined to pay the entire bill. And airports in Nairobi were not imagined and planned as part of organic city land use or changing urban ecology. Instead, airports happened to colonial Nairobi.</p>
<p>Decades later the city’s airports are a window to the institutional complexities, compromises and devices of late colonialism.</p>
<h2>Colonial considerations</h2>
<p>New purposes are often found for old airports, including using them for general aviation, such as serving recreational flying, and local business and tourist air charter.</p>
<p>This happened at Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The airport at Eastleigh reverted to a military facility – now Moi Airbase – having lost its commercial aviation role in the 1950s.</p>
<p>The layered decision-making behind this switch is a fascinating and, in parts, ugly story.</p>
<p>For eight years in the 1940s and 1950s, colonial officials in London and Nairobi discussed whether to retain and develop Eastleigh for post-War civil aviation, or to create a new and bigger airport elsewhere.</p>
<p>Britain wanted a more modern, safer and better quality airport than Eastleigh. The cost of the necessary runway extensions there versus the cost of developing a new airport at a more remote and expansive site was a major consideration.</p>
<p>Kenya’s Governor in 1945 was adamant that Britain should not expect a colony to pay for even just upgrading an airport for an air service which it had never requested and which few local people would use.</p>
<p>The possibility of paying for new facilities by selling buildings and some land at Eastleigh was considered. But the Royal Air Force was reluctant to give up its base there, especially during the Mau Mau uprising when military aircraft tracked and attacked their positions. </p>
<p>It was not just defence interests. Britain’s civil aviation ministry, the Colonial Office, the Treasury, Britain’s national airline (BOAC), and the Kenyan Legislative Assembly, had different views on how to even estimate the costs of airport renewal or relocation, let alone how to fund them. The Legislative Assembly protected its limited budget fiercely.</p>
<p>Several proposals were put forward. These included variations on how Kenya, Britain and airport users could share the expenses. Multiple studies produced different estimates of land values. And there were competing agendas. For example, the Nairobi City Council wanted the 1,000 acres of land at Eastleigh for houses for a growing population. But the Council did not have first call on or veto powers over the use of Crown Land. Meanwhile, other options were curtailed by requirements to freeze urban land development under aircraft flight paths. </p>
<h2>Eyes on the cost</h2>
<p>The affordability of airport expansion and modernisation was an ongoing headache. It was also a shifting target. During eight years spent on airport planning, different airport specifications and costings were geared to nine successive varieties of British airliner unilaterally proposed by BOAC for use into and out of Nairobi. Each had different technical attributes and variable requirements as regards approach corridor, runway length, width and strength, and aircraft parking space. </p>
<p>The introduction of the first ever passenger jet aircraft on the London–Johannesburg route via Nairobi in May 1952 helped focus minds. Without an airport that could handle BOAC’s Comet jet, Nairobi might have found itself off the principal air route across Africa.</p>
<p>After a technical engineering study of the Embakasi site, and piles of dense estimating, accounting, and reporting, a financial resolution was found. In May 1953 the Kenya Legislative Assembly agreed to the construction of the city’s third airport there. </p>
<p>In the late colonial period, the airport planning process was not very consultative. Officials in various strands of government were in the driving seat. Settler voices were heard indirectly, but not those of Africans or the Kenyan Asian population.</p>
<p>There were no people living on and farming the Embakasi site who had to be relocated to make way for the new airport. Nevertheless, there was a shameful side to Nairobi’s newest airport. In a jarring application of colonial practices, costs were saved during preparation of the new site by using Mau Mau prisoners as manual labourers.</p>
<p>Airport passenger terminals are often designed to flaunt a city and country. Embakasi’s modest terminal made Nairobi’s newest airport more colonial utility than colonial showpiece. A glaring showing of colonialism, the airport’s labour history is not commemorated in its post-colonial re-naming.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154208/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Pirie has received funding from the National Research Foundation and from DfID-ESRC. </span></em></p>Airport passenger terminals are often designed to flaunt a city and country. Embakasi’s rudimentary terminal made Nairobi’s newest airport more colonial utility than colonial showpiece.Gordon Pirie, Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1514212020-12-21T12:00:41Z2020-12-21T12:00:41ZMake drones sound less annoying by factoring in humans at the design stage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375703/original/file-20201217-21-j6xjzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=226%2C670%2C5615%2C3314&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/drone-transportation-camera-controls-highway-road-1082058548">Shutterstock/DmitryKalinovsky</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>These days almost everyone has either flown a drone or listened to the nasty whining sound they produce. Although small drones (up to 20kg) are <a href="https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/49647">about 40 decibels quieter</a> than conventional civil aircraft, they produce a high pitched noise – which people tend to find very annoying. </p>
<p>One <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20170005870/downloads/20170005870.pdf">Nasa study</a> found that drone sounds were more annoying than those made by road vehicles. And <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/59114/">my own research</a> has found that the noise of drones is less preferable than that of civil aircraft – even at the same volume.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that drones often fly at relatively low altitudes over populated areas that are not normally exposed to aircraft noise. This is likely to lead to tensions within the <a href="https://bonythonagainstdrones.com/">exposed communities</a>. Unquestionably, if the noise issues are not tackled appropriately, they could derail the wider adoption and commercialisation of drones and put at risk the significant societal benefits that they could bring.</p>
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<p>For example, small to medium size drones are already used for multiple applications such as <a href="https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/press/news-2020/new-research-projects-to-explore-use-of-drones-for-medical-delivery-purposes">medical deliveries</a> and the search for <a href="https://skyports.net/2020/01/skyports-to-the-rescue-using-drones-to-help-the-emergency-services/">missing persons</a>. Another innovation in commercial aviation is the development of electrical vertical takeoff and landing (and possibly autonomous) vehicles to <a href="https://www.uber.com/in/en/elevate/uberair/">transport people in cities</a>. </p>
<p>Several “urban air mobility” vehicles, or “flying taxis” are currently being developed by <a href="https://evtol.com/news/urban-air-mobility-concepts-showcased-nbaa/">different aircraft manufacturers</a>. Both drones and flying taxis will produce sounds significantly different from conventional civil aircraft and will share similar issues regarding noise annoyance.</p>
<p>In 2019, I started a line of research which aimed to answer two big questions: how will communities react to these new vehicles with unconventional noise signatures when they begin to operate at scale? And how can the design of these new vehicles be improved to protect the health and the quality of life of the people living in those communities?</p>
<p>To answer the first question, we investigated how a drone operation could influence the perception of a series of <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/53180/?template=banner">typical sound environments in cities</a>. As drones cannot be <a href="https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code/where-you-can-fly">flown closer to people than 50m</a>, virtual reality techniques were used to produce highly realistic scenarios with a drone hovering in a selection of urban locations. </p>
<p>This laboratory study found that the noise generated by the hovering of a small quad-copter significantly affected the perception of the sound environment. For instance, an important increase in noise annoyance was reported with the drone hovering, particularly in locations with low volumes of road traffic. This suggested that the noise produce by road traffic could make drone noise less noticeable. So the operation of drones along busy roads might mitigate the increase of noise impact caused in the community.</p>
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<p>We are now testing a wide variety of drones, with different operating manoeuvres. We seek to better understand and predict human responses to the drone sounds and to gather meaningful evidence to further develop the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32019R0945&from=EN">regulation of the sounds they produce</a>.</p>
<h2>Perception-influenced engineering</h2>
<p>By integrating human responses into the design process, the most undesirable noises can be avoided in the earliest stages of vehicle development.</p>
<p>This can either be done directly with subjective testing (human participants assessing and providing feedback for a series of drone noise samples) or through the use of so-called <a href="http://hub.salford.ac.uk/sirc-acoustics/psychoacoustics/sound-quality-making-products-sound-better/an-introduction-to-sound-quality-testing/sound-quality-metrics/">psycho-acoustic metrics</a> which are widely adopted in the automotive industry. These metrics allow an accurate representation of how different sound features (pitch, temporal variations, tones) are perceived. We want to use them to inform the design of drones. For instance, optimising the position of rotors to make drones sound less annoying.</p>
<p>The combination of virtual reality techniques and psycho-acoustic methods to inform the design and operation of drones will avoid costly and inefficient ad-hoc corrections at later stages, going beyond the traditional approach for aircraft noise assessment. But more importantly, if drone manufacturers incorporate these strategies into their designs, they might just build machines that are not only efficient, but also, just that little bit less irritating.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151421/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Antonio J Torija Martinez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We’ve devised a way to factor in noise annoyance levels in drone design.Antonio J Torija Martinez, Lecturer in Acoustic Engineering, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429432020-07-21T11:08:56Z2020-07-21T11:08:56ZCoronavirus is hurting airlines but they shouldn’t rush to cut jobs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348441/original/file-20200720-133010-s9ljg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the firing line.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-circa-may-2018-1121002661">pio3 / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic has been especially cruel to the aviation industry. COVID-19 had an immediate and severe impact on aviation that is unlike any other shock in the industry’s history. Whereas the 9/11 terrorist attack on the twin towers undermined confidence <a href="https://apex.aero/2020/06/10/aftershocks-coronavirus-impact">and disrupted passenger flights</a> and the <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2008-09-03-01/">financial crisis was hard on airlines</a>, neither of these events come close to the damage inflicted on airlines from global lockdowns. </p>
<p>When airlines don’t fly, they incur <a href="https://www.ilo.org/sector/activities/topics/crisis-recovery/WCMS_161566/lang--en/index.htm">heavy losses</a>. The health of the passenger airline industry is measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK). This represents the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers. As data <a href="https://www.icao.int/sustainability/Pages/Facts-Figures_WorldEconomyData.aspx">presented by the International Civil Aviation Organisation</a> show, passenger traffic drops sharply after a crisis, but it usually only takes a couple of years before there is significant growth.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing growth of airline revenue, 1950-2012." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348434/original/file-20200720-63094-1694t56.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), 1950-2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.icao.int/sustainability/Pages/Facts-Figures_WorldEconomyData.aspx">Data: International Civil Aviation Organization</a></span>
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<p>While the losses of airlines worldwide stood at <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/232513/net-profit-of-commercial-airlines-worldwide/">US$26.1 billion (£20.5 billion) in 2008</a>, the following year losses were just US$4.6 billion and in 2010 the airline industry was back in the black with net profits of US$17.3 billion. Predictions for 2020 and 2021 follow a similar but more severe pattern of minus US$84 billion and minus US$15 billion, respectively. </p>
<h2>Bearing the brunt</h2>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, several airlines have announced sizeable redundancy programmes as a result. British Airways says it plans to make <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/28/british-airways-plans-to-make-up-to-12000-staff-redundant">up to 12,000 staff redundant</a> and reduce the terms and conditions of 30,000 others. Meanwhile easyJet announced cuts of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/15/easyjet-flights-return-amid-concerns-over-physical-distancing">4,500</a> jobs in June and Ryanair of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/01/ryanair-cut-jobs-coronavirus-grounds-flights-restructuring">3,000</a> in May.</p>
<p>Asking the workforce to bear the brunt of falling demand may save the airline in the short-run but it will hurt relationships in the long-run. In fact, relationships have soured already as job cuts come on the back of very healthy pre-tax profits in 2019. IAG, the parent company of British Airways, posted pre-tax results of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ba-profits-british-airways-iberia-sale-iag-a8800876.html">£2.6 billion</a>, easyJet <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/08/easyjet-ba-ryanair-strikes-profits">£0.4 billion</a>, and Ryanair <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/ryanair-profits-boeing-737-max-airline-budget-a8921336.html">£0.9 billion</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, these airlines have also taken loans from the UK government’s coronavirus fund: <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/british-airways-parent-iag-taps-uk-government-funds-200507080916710.html">British Airways £300 million</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/06/easyjet-secures-600m-coronavirus-loan-from-uk-treasury-and-bank">easyJet £600 million</a> and <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/michael-olearys-optimism-gives-way-to-anger-at-quarantine-plan-g0zwz3r39">Ryanair £600 million</a>.</p>
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<img alt="British Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348438/original/file-20200720-18366-qeyk6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">British Airways had healthy pre-tax profits in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/heathrow-london-united-kingdom-july-7-692006812">shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Terms and conditions of employment in the airline industry in Europe have deteriorated in recent years. This has been the result of intensified competition within Europe’s single market for aviation services, most notably as a result of the increasing market share of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299599038_Evolution_of_the_Labour_Market_in_the_Airline_Industry_due_to_the_Development_of_the_Low_Fares_Airlines_LFAs">low-cost airlines</a> such as Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz.</p>
<p>As labour represents one of the few variable cost that airlines have immediate control over – unlike fuel, aircraft, landing charges and the like – many, but by no means all, tend to move quickly to <a href="https://www.ilo.org/sector/activities/topics/crisis-recovery/WCMS_161566/lang--en/index.htm">reduce these costs</a> in the event of a sudden downturn. This was certainly the case after <a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2002/102B09_516_engl.pdf">9/11</a> and the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---sector/documents/publication/wcms_161566.pdf">financial crisis</a>. </p>
<p>Airlines regard this as good business, especially when they can either hire new staff on inferior terms and conditions or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/17/ba-begins-to-carry-out-its-fire-and-rehire-threat-to-jobs">fire and rehire</a> the same staff on lower terms and conditions, without incurring training costs. Trade unions regard this as <a href="http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2002/102B09_516_engl.pdf">simple opportunism</a>: in the eyes of aviation unions and aircrew, job cuts not only constitute a cynical (short-term) policy to cut labour costs but a longer term strategy to further undermine terms and conditions of employment.</p>
<p>The new redundancy plans may not come to fruition. They might be used instead to browbeat staff and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VslyzYwG10EC&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=doganis+and+labour+is+the+key&source=bl&ots=5FYbnV3m5F&sig=ACfU3U12d12LlARhRyvhVEM-1PYxw_1EcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZu8C22brqAhXAQUEAHcBBAKQQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=doganis%20and%20labour%20is%20the%20key&f=false">secure further concessions from them</a>, as has happened in the past. Pilots at Ryanair, for example, recently voted in favour of a <a href="https://www.balpa.org/Media-Centre/Press-Releases/Ryanair-pilots-vote-to-accept-temporary-pay-cuts-t">20% pay cut</a> in order to save 260 pilot jobs at the airline, which were part of the cuts it announced in May. The pilots have negotiated that pay will be restored to pre-COVID-19 levels within four years (which would still constitute a pay cut due to inflation). </p>
<h2>There is an alternative</h2>
<p>Previous crises show that there are viable alternatives to job cuts. Following the 2008 financial crisis airlines like Southwest adopted a wider range of measures including <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---sector/documents/publication/wcms_161566.pdf">work-sharing, temporary pay cuts and furlough</a>. As a result, they were less likely to experience industrial strife and the business recovered more quickly. </p>
<p>Airline staff today are certainly willing to negotiate alternatives, as demonstrated at Ryanair. COVID-19 might hit harder and last longer than previous crises, but the industry will not disappear. Indeed, the majority of participants in a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gabrielleigh/2020/07/14/how-top-aviation-leaders-see-the-future-of-the-airline-industry/#2e75627e7b85">recent poll</a> of aviation professionals predicted a return to 2019 levels of revenue within three years. </p>
<p>The big question is what the recovery will look like for the workforce. Will the European aviation sector continue to offer decent work for the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/news/2019-03-01-social-standards-air-transport_en">2 million</a> people who currently work in it, or will jobs in this sector go the same way as precarious gig work, which now characterises so many other sectors of the economy?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geraint Harvey has received funding from the European Transport Workers’ Federation in conjunction with the European Commission (DG Employment), project number: VS/2011/0182 and the European Transport Workers’ Federation in conjunction with the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), project number: VS/2013/0184.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Turnbull has received funding from the European Transport Workers’ Federation in conjunction with the European Commission (DG Employment), project number: VS/2011/0182 and the European Transport Workers’ Federation in conjunction with the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), project number: VS/2013/0184.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Wintersberger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Past crises show airlines are well placed to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.Geraint Harvey, Professor in People & Organisation, Swansea UniversityDaniel Wintersberger, Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of BirminghamPeter Turnbull, Professor of Management, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1299482020-01-23T14:53:39Z2020-01-23T14:53:39ZDrones: forget flying taxis, here’s how to win public support and make them benefit cities<p>It’s easy to assume, perhaps thanks to all the <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9818573/heathrow-airport-drone-ground-flight-latest/">lurid tabloid headlines</a>, that people don’t like drones. At best, they’re a nuisance – the buzzing playthings of inconsiderate hobbyists or photographers taking pictures from above. At worst, they’re a tool for idiots to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/18/gatwick-drone-disruption-cost-airport-just-14m">close airports</a>, ruin holidays and cost the country millions. </p>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/">research</a> Nesta Challenges has carried out over the past two years reveals a far more nuanced picture. </p>
<p>The public, and public services, are actually quite open to drones being used more widely – including in cities, potentially the most challenging and controversial environment for them. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gatwick-drone-drama-shows-how-even-unarmed-uavs-can-cause-economic-chaos-and-risk-to-life-109187">Gatwick drone drama shows how even unarmed UAVs can cause economic chaos and risk to life</a>
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<p>But if this is to ever happen, there are challenges along the path to public acceptance. And these are not just the obvious ones around making sure operations are safe and reliable: <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/public-perception-of-drones/">people also care about what drones do, who is operating them – and where</a>.</p>
<p>That’s a big departure from how traditional aviation is perceived. Nobody really cares what’s in any given plane or what altitude it’s at, what route it’s on or what airline it’s owned by – as long as it’s far enough overhead. And that’s reflected in the laws and regulations that govern existing air traffic. Providing the pilots and equipment are certified, and they’re operating safely, there are no serious restrictions on who and what gets access to the sky.</p>
<h2>Buzz needs</h2>
<p>But it turns out that an unpiloted aircraft flying just 40 feet from our heads is quite different from an airliner 40,000 feet above. And the difference in altitude isn’t just a number. Low altitude airspace means interacting with people and things on the ground, in a way that flying above the clouds doesn’t.</p>
<p>So one thing is clear: simply replicating the rules and regulations around civil aviation won’t work. The future of drone traffic will be different to present day air traffic.</p>
<p>In the research we carried out as part of the Flying High project, we aimed to think about this future. We wanted to better understand <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/what-drones-can-do-in-ukcities/#content">how people thought drones might be used in our cities</a>, to investigate how <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/five-use-cases-drones-uk-cities/#content">feasible</a> some of the more far-fetched services people are proposing are, and to <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/exploring-urban-drone-integration/#content">paint a picture</a> of what the urban drone system of the future would look like.</p>
<p>We worked with local councils, academics and businesses in five English cities, chosen in part to reflect the diversity of economics, politics and scale of the places most of us live: <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/shaping-drone-use-bradford/#content">Bradford</a>, <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/shaping-drone-use-london/#content">London</a>, <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/shaping-drone-use-preston/#content">Preston</a>, <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/shaping-drone-use-southampton/#content">Southampton</a> and the <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/shaping-drone-use-west-midlands/#content">West Midlands</a> Combined Authority. </p>
<p>Interestingly, while there were some minor local variations in how people thought drones could be used (and some rather larger variations in how much or how deeply they had thought about these possible futures), there were several consistent principles. Generally, there was interest in the public sector uses of drones (for police, fire, transport infrastructure, medical transport), support for uses that promote social and economic equity, and some degree of support for cities having a say over, or even control of, drone traffic within their borders.</p>
<p>But this support from cities, like support from the public, is tentative and conditional. Some of the wilder commercial applications of drones we have heard – from flying taxis to pizza delivery – found little favour. </p>
<p>We believe that a continued push for potentially disruptive uses like these, that bring little or no public benefit, risks turning the public against drones. We could make the same mistakes that were made with genetically modified crops in the 1990s or nuclear power in the 1960s and 70s. In these cases, legitimate concerns about how the technologies were used were ignored – and public opposition hardened, even against applications with a clear and positive story to tell.</p>
<h2>The positive case</h2>
<p>In our research, we were keen to find out more about some of the positive uses that could bring public benefit. These are the kinds of uses that, given the current state of public and civic opinion, are most likely to be received with an open mind.</p>
<p>We developed five <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/flying-high-challenge-future-of-drone-technology-in-uk-cities/five-use-cases-drones-uk-cities/#content">near-future scenarios</a>, around long- and short-haul medical transport, fire and traffic incident response, and infrastructure development, and engaged with industry experts and potential users of the technology to gauge how technically and economically feasible they would be. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-attack-how-reaper-drones-really-carry-out-airstrikes-129411">Iran attack: how Reaper drones really carry out airstrikes</a>
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<p>We found that, aside from some remaining barriers to long-distance flight (flying further than the pilot can see), precision flight and automation, existing drone technology is largely capable of providing these services.</p>
<p>However, regulation remains a barrier. And a large part of the issue is building up a track record of safe operation that could convince the Civil Aviation Authority to permit operations like these over built-up areas. </p>
<p>Business cases – in particular, defining services in a way and at a scale which is both viable for operators and useful for customers – also still need some work, particularly for medical transportation. In short, there has so far been too much focus on technology development and not enough on developing credible services for that technology.</p>
<p>Even if the economics of these uses are hard to project with any certainty, there is growing evidence of the macroeconomic benefits that drones could bring to the UK. In December, with PWC, we <a href="https://challenges.org/impact/reports/report-how-drones-can-save-the-public-sector-1bn/">jointly published economic analysis</a> of the value to the UK economy of urban public service drone use – projecting net savings to the UK taxpayer of over £1 billion, and economic activity generated to the tune of almost £7 billion over the next 15 years.</p>
<p>But the only way to figure this all out for real – and to find out once and for all whether the public will accept this kind of service – is to actually try it out. </p>
<p>We think that some of the public money allocated to the Future Flight stream of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund needs to be spent on quickly getting live demonstrations going of public benefit drone services and testing out what the public think. </p>
<p>Spending time and money on boondoggles such as flying taxis or online deliveries for the rich, or focusing exclusively on technology development without buy-in from the public or a credible business or service model, doesn’t just risk wasting money, it puts at risk the real benefits that we have found drones could bring to our public services.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nesta's Flying High project received funding from Innovate UK</span></em></p>Drones are coming to our cities – but what do people really think about them, and how can they have a sustainable future? New research provides some answers.Olivier Usher, Lead, Research and Impact, NestaHolly Jamieson, Head of Future Cities, NestaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1130222019-07-11T11:07:06Z2019-07-11T11:07:06ZCommercial supersonic aircraft could return to the skies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281640/original/file-20190627-76726-10d7sk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C356%2C4488%2C2714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't call it a comeback.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:235ac_-_British_Airways_Concorde;_G-BOAD@LHR;15.05.2003_(8056002570).jpg">Aero Icarus/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flying faster than the speed of sound still sounds futuristic for regular people, more than 15 years after the last commercial supersonic flights ended. The planes that made those journeys, the 14 aircraft collectively known as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/concorde-flying-what-was-it-like/index.html">the Concorde</a>, flew <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/Concorde">from 1976 to 2003</a>. It traveled <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/concorde2.htm">three times faster than regular passenger aircraft</a>, but the airlines that flew it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/24/nyregion/for-concorde-economics-trumped-technology.html">couldn’t make a profit on its trips</a>.</p>
<p>The reason the Concorde was unprofitable was, in fact, a side effect of its speed. When the plane sped up past the speed of sound – about 760 mph – it created shock waves in the air that would hit the ground with a loud and sudden thud: a sonic “boom.” It is so alarming for people on the ground that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/28/archives/supersonic-civilianflights-over-us-are-outlawed.html">U.S. federal regulations ban</a> all commercial aircraft from flying faster than the speed of sound over land.</p>
<p>Those rules, and the amount of fuel the plane could carry, effectively limited the Concorde to trans-Atlantic flights. Operating the plane was still so expensive that a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/concorde-216-prepared-exhibition-aerospace-bristol-pictures/concorde-retired-due-cost-flying-aircraft-standard-cost-one/">one-way ticket between London and New York</a> could cost over US$5,000. And the Concorde often flew with half its seats empty.</p>
<p>The main benefit of supersonic travel is the reduction in flight time. A three-hour flight across the Atlantic could make a day trip possible from the U.S. to London or Paris, essentially saving one whole work day. As an <a href="https://aero.engin.umich.edu/people/iain-d-boyd/">aerospace engineer studying high-speed air vehicles</a>, I believe that recent advances in technology and new trends in commercial air travel could make supersonic flight economically viable. But regulations will have to change before civilians can zip through the skies faster than sound.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272038/original/file-20190501-113864-8mbtte.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">As a plane accelerates, it builds up a front of air pressure by pushing air in front of it. When it passes the speed of sound, the pressure trails behind like a boat’s wake, forming a sonic shockwave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transonico-en.svg">Chabacano/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Beating the boom</h2>
<p>As an aircraft flies through the air, it creates pressure disturbance waves that travel at the speed of sound. When the aircraft itself is flying faster than sound, the disturbances are compressed together into a stronger disturbance called a shock wave. Shock wave patterns around supersonic aircraft were recently imaged in <a href="https://www.livescience.com/64941-merging-supersonic-shockwaves-photo.html">NASA experiments</a>. When a supersonic aircraft flies overhead, some of the shock waves may reach the ground. This is the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-016-DFRC.html">sonic boom</a>, which is experienced as a startling thud.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sonic booms can be quite loud.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Commercial flights are regulated in the U.S. by the Federal Aviation Administration. To protect the public from sonic booms, the current FAA regulations ban the flight over land of any commercial aircraft at supersonic speed.</p>
<p>However, NASA is working to significantly reduce the sonic boom in its <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/aero/x-59-quesst-overview/">X-59 program</a>. By careful shaping of the aircraft, the goal is to weaken the shock waves or to prevent them from reaching the ground.</p>
<p>With flight demonstrations scheduled to begin in 2021, success in NASA’s project could remove one important barrier to supersonic flight.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DPd0OHrmCBc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A promotional NASA video shows early views of a supersonic aircraft that makes a much quieter sonic boom than the Concorde did.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Noisy on the ground, too</h2>
<p>My father took me to see the Concorde take off in the early 1970s, and what I remember after all these years is the noise. Nowadays, I recognize that landing and takeoff noise at airports is a second barrier to supersonic aircraft. Airport noise is also regulated in the U.S. by the FAA, and the current rules require that supersonic aircraft meet the same airport noise standards as subsonic aircraft. The Concorde was so loud, however, that it had to be given an exception from those rules.</p>
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<span class="caption">A diagram of air flow through a jet engine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jet_engine.svg">Jeff Dahl/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The latest subsonic aircraft use very large jet engines that deliver high fuel efficiency. These engines also greatly reduce airport noise by accelerating a larger volume of air to a lower velocity than smaller engines. The new engines are so quiet that regulators have twice been able to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/10/04/2017-21092/stage-5-airplane-noise-standards">decrease the amount of noise airplanes</a> are allowed to make since Concorde stopped flying. </p>
<p>Those standards are now much harder for supersonic aircraft to meet. That’s because supersonic aircraft can’t use the big new engines, which greatly increase the drag at high speed. That, in turn, requires more fuel to be carried aboard the plane and burned in flight, which is both heavy and expensive. Essentially, in the design of supersonic planes, a compromise has to be found between noise and efficiency.</p>
<h2>Positive developments</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281641/original/file-20190627-76722-1ahfplc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chevron shapes around the engine’s exhaust nozzles helps reduce aircraft noise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_Electric_GEnx-1B_(14233497776).jpg">John Crowley/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, some recent innovations for airport noise reduction on subsonic aircraft will also yield reductions for supersonic vehicles in comparison to the Concorde’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/tupolev-tu-144-concordski/index.html">1960s design</a>. These advances include the use of <a href="https://www.aircraftnerds.com/2017/03/why-do-boeing-747-and-boeing-787-engine-have-Chevron-Nozzle.html">chevrons on jet engine nozzles</a> to reduce jet noise by more effectively mixing the gas from the engine with the external airflow.</p>
<p>Also, with the improved speed and accuracy of computer simulations, it’s now easier to explore new noise-reducing airframe designs. </p>
<p>In addition to technology advances since the Concorde retired, there have also been important changes in commercial air travel patterns. Specifically, there has been a significant increase in the use of commercial business jets and their ownership by wealthy individuals. So, one promising approach to the reintroduction of supersonic commercial aircraft is to develop small business jets. This is the approach being taken by Aerion.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ARgC3-bxmtk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Aerion is developing a supersonic business jet in collaboration with Boeing and Lockheed Martin.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Updating the rules</h2>
<p>Technology and market forces are making supersonic aircraft more acceptable and more affordable – but the relevant aviation rules haven’t changed since the Concorde era. In its <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4/text">Reauthorization Act of 2018</a>, the FAA is required to review the regulations for supersonic aircraft on sonic boom and airport noise.</p>
<p>Recently, the current <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-should-lead-the-way-back-to-supersonic-flight/2019/06/24/f1b884e2-96b7-11e9-916d-9c61607d8190_story.html">U.S. administration</a> signaled that it wants to amend the rules to facilitate supersonic commercial flight. An important <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-17/faa-will-propose-streamlining-supersonic-flight-test-approvals">first step</a> involves the FAA simplifying the process for testing supersonic aircraft.</p>
<p>In my view, the current total ban on any flight over land at supersonic speed is far too restrictive. Aircraft flying at low supersonic speeds do not generate a significant boom. And, the NASA X-59 project may result in supersonic aircraft with much weaker booms. Rather than banning booms entirely, it would be better to set maximum boom levels, to balance the benefits of supersonic flight with the noisy detriments.</p>
<p>In addition, I believe the current airport-noise rules, requiring supersonic aircraft be no louder than subsonic airplanes, impose an unreasonable burden on supersonic aircraft developers. First, as mentioned earlier, the Concorde provides a precedent for making a special case for supersonic aircraft. Second, for many years after their initial reintroduction, the total number of supersonic aircraft departing any airport will be a small fraction of all traffic. For example, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150119012827/http://www.aerionsupersonic.com/pdf/41.pdf">a study conducted for Aerion</a> indicated potential sales of 30 supersonic aircraft a year for 20 years in the small business market. Regulations should accommodate both what supersonic aircraft technology can reasonably deliver and what airport communities will tolerate.</p>
<p>Momentum is building through changes in technology and market that may bring back supersonic commercial flight, if regulations keep up. While at first it may be affordable to only a select few, the experience gained in developing and operating these aircraft will inevitably lead to new innovations that drive down ticket prices and open the opportunity to fly faster than the speed of sound to a broader section of society.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iain Boyd is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is a paid consultant for several organizations, both non-profit and for-profit.</span></em></p>Recent advances in technology and new trends in commercial air travel could make supersonic flight economically viable. But regulations will have to change first.Iain Boyd, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1196102019-07-10T15:09:04Z2019-07-10T15:09:04ZGhana aims for safer skies with new aviation laws<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282665/original/file-20190704-51262-6k0sa2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With the right legislation, Ghana hopes to improve aviation compliance and safety.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ghana recently spent $275 million expanding and<a href="https://www.africanaerospace.aero/kotoka-terminal-lightens-the-load.html"> modernising Kotoka International Airport</a> located in the capital city, Accra. This is part of its <a href="http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/news/1882-ghana-to-open-up-its-tourism-sector-to-turkey">plan to attract eight million tourists</a> annually by 2027. A significant increase from the 1.2 million people who visited the country in <a href="https://www.mofep.gov.gh/sites/default/files/pbb-estimates/2017/2017-PBB-MOTAC.pdf">2015</a>. Given that most of these tourists will arrive in the country by air, attracting them partly depends on Ghana’s ability to create and maintain a safe air transport sector.</p>
<p>Ghana is a state party to the Chicago Convention. This multilateral treaty established the fundamental <a href="https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/7300_orig.pdf">principles governing international air travel</a>. It also created the <a href="https://www.icao.int/Pages/default.aspx">International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)</a> - a United Nations agency which manages the international air transport system. As a member of ICAO, Ghana is expected to comply with its standards and recommended practices. </p>
<p>But it has had some compliance problems. In 2006, Ghana ranked below average in five out of eight criteria set by the organisation’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme. Although it met the requisite standard level for licensing, accident investigations and aerodromes, Ghana’s aviation industry was found to be unsatisfactory when it came to legislation, organisation, operations, air worthiness and air navigation services.</p>
<p>In 2010, two Ghanaian airlines appeared on the European Union Air Safety List for failing to meet certain international safety standards. The list is a directory of airlines which have been banned or otherwise restricted from flying in the European Union. Currently, Ghana is a Category 2 country on the American Federal Aviation Authority’s <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/iasa/">International Aviation Assessment Program</a>. This means they were found to have not met the requisite safety standards. </p>
<p>Ghana’s been working hard to address its aviation deficiencies. This has yielded some important successes. In 2015, the two Ghanaian airlines were <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/news/2015-06-25-air-ban_en">removed</a> from the EU Air Safety List. In June 2019 Ghana was <a href="https://www.icao.int/safety/Pages/USOAP-Results.aspx">awarded</a> a provisional Effective Implementation grade of 89.89% in aviation safety oversight under ICAO’s Coordinated Validation Mission. </p>
<p>This is a remarkable achievement: it surpasses the organisation’s minimum target of 60% and significantly outshines the global average of 66.5%. It is also the highest score for an African country. The Effective Implementation average rate for the continent is just over 50%.</p>
<p>So how has Ghana achieved this milestone? Through inter-agency cooperation and efforts to amend existing legislation and pass new ones. These legislative efforts kicked off after the country’s poor performance in the 2006 audit. Legislators and aviation authorities realised they needed to strengthen the country’s laws to improve the situation. This work culminated in two particularly crucial pieces of legislation – the Ghana Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act, 2019 and Aircraft Accident and Serious Incident Regulations, 2019. Both were passed by Parliament in March this year.</p>
<p>There is still a need to address the other areas identified by the audit, air worthiness and organisational efficiency, for example. These require effective and efficient business administration. One solution may be to involve a commercially-focused private company to rectify the outstanding operational issues. Indeed there have been rumours of privatisation. The financial investment and strategic management necessary to maintain the safety improvements made, and take Ghana’s aviation industry to the next level – one to rival counterparts in Nairobi – just might require the private sector. </p>
<h2>New laws</h2>
<p>The first of the two crucial laws aimed at improving aviation safety is the <a href="http://www.gcaa.com.gh/web/?p=639">Ghana Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act 2019 (Act 985)</a>, which modified a number of pre-existing laws. </p>
<p>Under it, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority will retain its regulatory function. But it will no longer be responsible for operational functions such as navigation services. These will be coordinated by a new body. This separation of roles should improve economic efficiency and minimise conflicts of interests. </p>
<p>The Act has also strengthened some important roles within the aviation sector. For instance, powers of the Minister of Aviation and Chief Investigator have been enhanced. The Civil Aviation Authority’s Director General has also been given extra powers. This person can now compel an individual to produce documents – or testify – before any person or panel whose work falls under the authority’s mandate. These changes should assist the effective investigation of aviation incidents and accidents. </p>
<p>The other new legislation is the <a href="http://moa.gov.gh/index.php/notification-of-aircraft-accidents-and-incidents/">Aircraft Accident and Serious Incident Regulations</a>, 2019. This requires airline operators to immediately notify authorities of an accident or serious incident. The law created the Accident Incident Bureau to manage investigations of civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents in Ghana. Its remit also covers any state-registered aircraft that are involved in incidents or accidents outside the country. </p>
<p>The new regulations also provide for the establishment of a database of facts and figures relating to accidents and serious incidents for the first time. This will enable officials to do useful analysis on actual or potential safety concerns. It will also help identify any necessary corrective measures. </p>
<p>These legislative changes are meant to improve aviation safety oversight, enhance the powers of aviation officials and address inefficiencies. It should also facilitate the transition to Category 1 status on the FAA’s list.</p>
<p>It’s hoped that the new legal framework will help Ghana improve its reputation and performance in all sorts of safety and compliance measures. And make the country’s aircraft even safer for passengers.</p>
<h2>What still needs to be done</h2>
<p>Whether these new laws have their intended effect depends largely on the degree to which they are implemented. Additional resources are likely to be required. This could include a cash injection to sustain the progress made and increase the number of professionals with technical training and expertise in aviation. Any optimism about successful and long-lasting compliance requires senior officials with a sound understanding of the importance and will to enforce violations. </p>
<p>The tragic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/ethiopian-flight-302-second-new-boeing-737-max-8-to-crash-in-four-months">Ethiopian Airlines crash</a> in March 2019 was a sobering reminder that major problems arise when safety and security are concentrated in one stakeholder, like airline manufacturers.</p>
<p>The more stakeholders, including states, involved in evaluating, implementing and maintaining safety standards, the better. This is why stronger legislation is so important. Now it’s incumbent on Ghana to ensure consistent compliance with its new laws.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Selman Ayetey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s hoped that this new aviation legal framework will help Ghana to improve its reputation and performance in all sorts of safety and compliance measures.Julia Selman Ayetey, Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Air & Space Law, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1170692019-05-21T11:36:40Z2019-05-21T11:36:40ZSimply elegant, Morse code marks 175 years and counting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274994/original/file-20190516-69174-1o1ftdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4361%2C2909&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's still plenty of reason to know how to use this Morse telegraph key.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/morse-code-key-on-white-background-97099433">Jason Salmon/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first message sent by Morse code’s dots and dashes across a long distance traveled from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore on Friday, May 24, 1844 – 175 years ago. It signaled the first time in human history that complex thoughts could be communicated at long distances almost instantaneously. <a href="https://prezi.com/9puvdbvqudzy/early-methods-of-long-distance-communication/">Until then</a>, people had to have face-to-face conversations; send coded messages <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-talking-drums-29197334/">through drums</a>, <a href="https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-send-smoke-signal.htm">smoke signals</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22909590">semaphore systems</a>; or read printed words.</p>
<p>Thanks to Samuel F.B. Morse, communication changed rapidly, and has been changing ever faster since. He invented the electric telegraph in 1832. It took six more years for him to standardize a code for communicating over telegraph wires. In 1843, <a href="https://www.thedailystar.com/opinion/columns/samuel-morse-s-telegraph-plans-perfected-in-cherry-valley/article_1ceb7424-a97a-5d70-b6c8-82045d04043a.html">Congress gave him US$30,000</a> to string wires between the nation’s capital and nearby Baltimore. When the line was completed, he conducted a public demonstration of long-distance communication.</p>
<p>Morse wasn’t the only one working to develop a means of <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/the-jolt-of-electricity-that-forever-altered-war">communicating over the telegraph</a>, but his is the one that has survived. The wires, magnets and keys used in the initial demonstration have given way to smartphones’ on-screen keyboards, but Morse code has remained fundamentally the same, and is still – perhaps surprisingly – relevant in the 21st century. Although I have learned, and relearned, it many times as a Boy Scout, an amateur radio operator and a pilot, I continue to admire it and strive to master it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=29&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=29&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=29&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=37&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=37&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274164/original/file-20190513-183109-5w8cpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=37&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel F.B. Morse’s own handwritten record of the first Morse code message ever sent, on May 24, 1844.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/mmorse.071009/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Easy sending</h2>
<p>Morse’s key insight in constructing the code was considering how frequently each letter is used in English. The most commonly used letters have shorter symbols: “E,” which appears most often, is signified by a single “dot.” By contrast, “Z,” the <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/which-letters-are-used-most">least used letter</a> in English, was signified by the much longer and more complex “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Morse_code">dot-dot-dot (pause) dot</a>.” </p>
<p>In 1865, the International Telecommunications Union <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/ITUBorn1865.aspx">changed the code</a> to account for different character frequencies in other languages. There have been other tweaks since, but “E” is still “dot,” though “Z” is now “<a href="https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/m/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I!!PDF-E.pdf#page=4">dash-dash-dot-dot</a>.”</p>
<p>The reference to letter frequency makes for extremely efficient communications: Simple words with common letters can be transmitted very quickly. Longer words can still be sent, but they take more time.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274166/original/file-20190513-183083-1rn88ts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel F.B. Morse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2016816533/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Going wireless</h2>
<p>The communications system that Morse code was designed for – analogue connections over metal wires that carried a lot of interference and needed a clear on-off type signal to be heard – has evolved significantly.</p>
<p>The first big change came just a few decades after Morse’s demonstration. In the late 19th century, Guglielmo Marconi invented <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/guglielmo-marconi">radio-telegraph equipment</a>, which could send Morse code over radio waves, rather than wires.</p>
<p>The shipping industry loved this new way to communicate with ships at sea, either from ship to ship or to shore-based stations. By 1910, U.S. law <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Ship_Act_of_1910">required many passenger ships in U.S. waters</a> to carry wireless sets for sending and receiving messages. </p>
<p>After the Titanic sank in 1912, an international agreement required some ships to assign a person to <a href="https://www.itu.int/itunews/manager/display.asp?lang=en&year=2006&issue=06&ipage=pioneers&ext=html">listen for radio distress signals</a> at all times. That same agreement designated “SOS” – “<a href="https://www.itu.int/itunews/manager/display.asp?lang=en&year=2006&issue=06&ipage=pioneers&ext=html">dot-dot-dot dash-dash-dash dot-dot-dot</a>” – as the international distress signal, not as an abbreviation for anything but because it was a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17631595">simple pattern</a> that was easy to remember and transmit. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/02/us/coast-guard-signs-off-on-morse-code-and-an-era-at-sea-ends.html">Coast Guard discontinued monitoring</a> in 1995. The requirement that ships monitor for distress signals was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-aug-16-mn-13607-story.html">removed in 1999</a>, though the U.S. Navy still teaches at least some <a href="https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=92864">sailors to read, send and receive Morse code</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274734/original/file-20190515-60545-17v0f17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The arrow points at the chart label indicating the Morse code equivalent to the ‘BAL’ signal for a radio beacon near Baltimore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/vfr/">Edited screenshot of an FAA map</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aviators also use Morse code to identify automated navigational aids. These are radio beacons that help pilots follow routes, traveling from one transmitter to the next on aeronautical charts. They <a href="https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2012/august/31/ifr-fix-how-is-your-morse-code">transmit their identifiers</a> – such as “BAL” for Baltimore – in Morse code. Pilots often learn to recognize familiar-sounding patterns of beacons in areas they fly frequently.</p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.fistsna.org/">thriving community</a> of amateur radio operators who treasure Morse code, too. Among amateur radio operators, Morse code is a cherished tradition tracing back to the earliest days of radio. Some of them may have begun in the Boy Scouts, which has made learning Morse variably <a href="https://observer.wunderwood.org/2016/02/22/history-of-morse-code-in-the-bsa/">optional or required</a> over the years. The Federal Communications Commission used to require all licensed amateur radio operators to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code, but that <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-modifies-amateur-radio-service-rules-eliminating-morse-code-exam">ended in 2007</a>. The FCC does still issue <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/commercial-radio-operator-license-program/commercial-0">commercial licenses that require Morse</a> proficiency, but no jobs require it anymore.</p>
<h2>Blinking Morse</h2>
<p>Because its signals are so simple – on or off, long or short – Morse code can also be used by flashing lights. Many navies around the world use blinker lights to communicate from ship to ship when they don’t want to use radios or when radio equipment breaks down. The U.S. Navy is actually testing a system that would let a user <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a27391/us-navy-morse-code-software/">type words and convert it to blinker light</a>. A receiver would read the flashes and convert it back to text.</p>
<p>Skills learned in the military <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4120186/Army-veteran-54-crawled-rocky-beach-two-hours-breaking-leg-saved-exchanging-Morse-code-signals-wife-using-TORCH.html">helped an injured man communicate</a> with his wife across a rocky beach using only his flashlight in 2017.</p>
<h2>Other Morse messages</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most notable modern use of Morse code was by <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2014-mar-29-la-me-jeremiah-denton-20140329-story.html">Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton</a>, while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In 1966, about one year into a nearly eight-year imprisonment, Denton was forced by his North Vietnamese captors to participate in a video interview about his treatment. While the camera focused on his face, he blinked the Morse code symbols for “torture,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/us/politics/jeremiah-a-denton-jr-war-hero-and-senator-dies-at-89.html">confirming for the first time</a> U.S. fears about the treatment of service members held captive in North Vietnam.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ioC_F8FvviM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Navy pilot Jeremiah Denton, a prisoner of war, blinks Morse code spelling out ‘torture’ during a forced interview with his captors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-25-me-16256-story.html">Blinking Morse code</a> <a href="https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/managing-locked-in-syndrome-lessons-from-a-profile-of-a-rare-case/">is slow</a>, but has also <a href="https://owlcation.com/humanities/morse_code">helped people with medical conditions</a> that prevent them from <a href="https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/accessibility/imagining-new-ways-learn-morse-codes-dots-and-dashes/">speaking or communicating</a> in other ways. A number of devices – including <a href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/gboard-ios-morse-code-mode/">iPhones and Android</a> smartphones – can be set up to accept Morse code input from people with limited motor skills.</p>
<p>There are still many ways people can <a href="https://morsedx.com/">learn Morse code</a>, and <a href="https://cwops.org/cw-academy-2/">practice</a> using it, even online. In emergency situations, it can be the only mode of communications that will get through. Beyond that, there is an art to Morse code, a rhythmic, musical fluidity to the sound. Sending and receiving it can have a soothing or meditative feeling, too, as the person focuses on the flow of individual characters, words and sentences. Overall, sometimes the simplest tool is all that’s needed to accomplish the task.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie King is affiliated with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) as a Senior Member. He is also a member of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), American Association of Engineering Educators (ASEE), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), Civil Air Patrol (CAP), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).</span></em></p>Morse code works whether flashing a spotlight or blinking your eyes – or even tapping on a smartphone touchscreen.Eddie King, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/919762018-05-23T10:42:16Z2018-05-23T10:42:16ZFarmers and cropdusting pilots on the Great Plains worried about pesticide risks before ‘Silent Spring’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218648/original/file-20180511-34018-1vihj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/crop-duster-applies-chemicals-field-vegetation-305906132">Gavin Baker</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is easy to frame conservation as a clash between environmentalists and polluters. But this view can greatly oversimplify many complex choices. What does conservation look like when ideas about nature cut across political lines?</p>
<p>In my book, “<a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Chemical-Lands,6706.aspx">Chemical Lands: Pesticides, Aerial Spraying and Health in North America’s Grasslands since 1945</a>,” I explore how pilots, scientists and farmers developed practices for “cropdusting” on the Great Plains after World War II. This industry took shape years before Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring,” a sweeping critique of widespread use of synthetic pesticides, in 1962.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218644/original/file-20180511-135202-jzcs24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cropdusting pilots often published their own manuals for spraying schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Nebraska at Kearney</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chemical companies made broad promises about these “miracle” products, with little discussion of risks. But pilots and scientists took a much more cautious approach. Well before a national environmental movement emerged, local producers developed their own ways to study safety and health questions as early as the 1950s. If protecting agricultural health here meant using pesticides to meet production goals, they wanted to understand the risks too. </p>
<h2>A cautious approach</h2>
<p>After World War II, U.S. farmers began using new chemicals, many developed during the war, to fight pests. Grasslands weeds like <a href="http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/natural-resources/musk-thistle-3-102/">musk thistle</a> and <a href="https://communityenvironment.unl.edu/field-bindweed">field bindweed</a>, and insects like <a href="https://www.ent.iastate.edu/pest/cornborer/">corn borers</a>, threatened production lands as markets were expanding during the postwar economic boom. </p>
<p>Farm poisons seemed like a “silver bullet” response. Just as insecticides like DDT had protected Allied soldiers against diseases such as typhus fever, they could protect fields at home, companies like DuPont and Dow told farmers in advertisements, trade journals and in-person sales. </p>
<p>But cropdusting pilots, known as “ag pilots,” and land-grant agricultural scientists didn’t all buy this message. They worried that using pesticides might be just as dangerous as not using them. In search of answers, they attended annual conferences held at universities and rural convention centers. At meetings like the North Central Weed Control Conference, which took place annually starting in 1944, ag pilots and farmers could learn about new advances and debate current practices. Records of these meetings show a kind of “chemical stewardship” developing on the Plains.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218642/original/file-20180511-34015-zt3mhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early spraying configuration recommendations from Farmers’ Bulletin (1954).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://archive.org/stream/CAT87205611/farmbul2062rev1960#page/n13/mode/2up">USDA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Potential for good or harm</h2>
<p>Many farmers and experts were well aware of how little they really knew about pesticide and herbicide impacts. University of Nebraska agricultural extension scientist Noel Hanson cautioned in his plenary speech at the 1947 NCWCC meeting in Topeka, Kansas, about the promise of agricultural chemicals: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<em>We all know that it will take years of research, education, regulation, manufacture, distribution of materials, and plain good farming in a sound agriculture and industry before the weeds that are now present can be most efficiently and economically brought under control. Little progress can be made until the biological foundations … are better known</em>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Reporter Dick Mann observed in the Kansas Farmer that wheat farmers also worried about the new pesticides and potential impacts of aerial spraying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<em>These chemicals compare with some of the new miracle drugs in medicine. They have the power for tremendous good, but they also have the power for great harm if improperly used. … With this information as background you can see that many persons are deeply concerned over the possibilities of this thing getting out of hand.</em>”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Hays, Kansas, pilot Donald E. Pratt – known as the “Spray King of the West” – established the P-T Air Service, an aerial spraying school that combined spraying education with agricultural science. Pratt had his pilots learn as much as they could about the newest pest control chemicals on the market. His crew met with state entomologists and weed scientists to better understand crop-pest interactions. Then Pratt conducted his own experiments on private test plots to assess effectiveness and hazards. Many Great Plains pilots ran flight schools similar to Pratt’s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218643/original/file-20180511-34009-728jqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spray planes in Donald Pratt’s P-T Air Service fleet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kansas State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rogue pilots and chemical bootleggers</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, some operators cut corners. Renegade pilots failed to pay attention to wind direction for target fields. In my archival research, I found that their haphazardness resulted in many chemical poisonings in fields and communities. </p>
<p>Some suppliers developed a process called “incorporating” – mixing two or three different pesticides together, then repackaging the adulterated poison and mislabeling it as an entirely different chemical. These products either over-poisoned farmers’ fields or had virtually no effect on pests. They also threatened ag pilots’ professional reputations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218645/original/file-20180511-34027-ftb1zv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caricatures of farm chemical hucksters and criminals, 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kansas State University Libraries</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But reputable weed scientists and ag pilots continued studying risks of aerial pesticide application. They also devised methods to stop chemical hucksters, such as designing industry certification documents and supporting aerial spraying laws. </p>
<h2>The ‘Silent Spring’ era</h2>
<p>Then came Rachel Carson’s best-seller. A key question in “Silent Spring” was how users applied agricultural chemicals, especially insecticides. Carson never argued for completely banning popular insecticides or urged farmers to stop using chemicals entirely. But she called indiscriminate aerial application the best example of vast ecological dangers associated with DDT and other farm chemicals: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<em>Although today’s poisons are more dangerous than any known before, they have amazingly become something to be showered down indiscriminately from the skies. Not only the target insect or plant, but anything human and nonhuman within range of the chemical fallout has known the sinister touch of the poison.</em>” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Carson, health encompassed humans, wildlife and the environment in a holistic way. She implicated producers and the chemicals they used in endangering all living things. Farmers, ranchers, cattle, crops, water supplies and cities were all at risk. “Silent Spring” sparked calls for regulation in the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and the banning of DDT in 1972. </p>
<p>Many ag pilots pushed back, claiming they had already developed practical methods to minimize risks. Pesticides were dangerous, but so were pests. Protection and safety on farmlands meant “safe,” “standardized” agricultural chemical use.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218647/original/file-20180511-34018-jgult.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Agricultural plane test-spraying Kansas wheat for drift hazards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Vail</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Still on the treadmill</h2>
<p>After DDT was banned, new and more toxic alternatives succeeded it – first <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/rmpp_6thed_ch5_organophosphates.pdf">organophosphates</a>, and more recently, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/27/606355288/eu-to-completely-ban-outdoor-use-of-pesticides-blamed-for-devastating-bees">neonicotinoids</a>. But insect pests and weeds have developed resistance to each new generation of products. Today many farmers are contending with weeds that have <a href="http://netnebraska.org/article/news/929896/front-lines-farmers-struggle-against-chemical-resistant-weeds">developed resistance</a> to the widely used herbicide glyphosate – the latest step on this chemical-pest treadmill. </p>
<p>Farm chemicals remain <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/43854/46734_eib124.pdf?v=41830">a key part of conventional agriculture</a>, and aerial spraying is still a central practice for most large-scale farms on the Great Plains. Many pilots and farmers still pursue chemical stewardship, <a href="https://www.gps.gov/applications/agriculture/">using GPS technologies</a> to apply pesticides precisely and use no more than needed. </p>
<p>But as cheap chemical solutions lose their potency, agricultural extension programs increasingly are recommending approaches that include non-chemical tactics, like <a href="https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/blog/bob-hartzler/top-10-strategies-managing-herbicide-resistance">crop diversity</a> and <a href="http://www.hpj.com/crops/ways-to-control-herbicide-resistant-weeds/article_36f394ea-c634-11e6-bb8e-db8d94b3192c.html">planting practices that inhibit weed growth</a>. These seemingly contrasting views – using chemicals to control pests while seeking to minimize environmental damage – reflect the nuanced attitudes many Great Plains farmers and pilots have long held toward pesticides and herbicides.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91976/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Vail does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chemical companies touted synthetic insecticides and herbicides as miracle products in the 1940s and 1950s. But farmers and cropdusting pilots didn’t always buy the sales pitch.David Vail, Assistant Professor of History, University of Nebraska – KearneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/834882017-09-11T02:29:31Z2017-09-11T02:29:31ZDrones and wildlife – working to co-exist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184799/original/file-20170905-13729-jiegln.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers have reviewed evidence for wildlife disturbance and current drone policies and found that the law is playing catch-up with emerging technology. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pip Wallace</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The drone market is booming and it is changing the way we use airspace, with some unforeseen consequences. </p>
<p>The uptake of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) has been swift. But despite their obvious benefits, concerns are growing about impacts on wildlife.</p>
<p>In our <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4sYjxg7CDjS4tCSQnPSr/full">research</a> we investigate whether regulation is keeping pace with the speed of technological change. We argue that it doesn’t, and we suggest that threatened species might need extra protection to ensure they aren’t harmed by drones.</p>
<h2>RPA management</h2>
<p>Drones are useful tools for conservation biologists. They allow them to survey inaccessible terrain and assist with many challenging tasks, from <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-25/the-plan-to-plant-nearly-100,000-trees-a-day-with-drones/8642766">seeding forests</a> to <a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/170710-drone-collect-whale-snot-vin-spd">collecting whale snot</a>.</p>
<p>But researchers are also discovering that RPAs have negative impacts on wildlife, ranging from temporary disturbances to fatal collisions.</p>
<p>Disturbance from vehicles and other human activity are known to affect wildlife, but with the speed that drones have entered widespread use, their effects are only just starting to be studied. </p>
<p>So far, the regulatory response has focused squarely on risks to human health, safety and privacy, with wildlife impacts only rarely taken into account, and even then usually in a limited way.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-age-of-drones-has-arrived-quicker-than-the-laws-that-govern-them-47024">The age of drones has arrived quicker than the laws that govern them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is not uncommon for regulatory gaps to arise when new technology is introduced. The rapid growth of drone technology raises a series of questions for environmental law and management. </p>
<p>We have reviewed evidence for wildlife disturbance and current drone policies and found that the law is playing catch-up with emerging technology. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185356/original/file-20170910-12546-wgajii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Impacts on wildlife range from disturbance to fatal collisions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pip Wallace</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is particularly important in New Zealand, where many threatened species live outside protected reserves. Coastal areas are of particular concern. They provide habitat for numerous threatened and migrating species but also experience high rates of urban development and recreational activity. Different species also respond very differently to the invasion of their airspace. </p>
<p>Where “flying for fun” and pizza delivery by drone combine with insufficient control, there is potential for unanticipated consequences to wildlife.</p>
<h2>RPA and red tape</h2>
<p>When competing interests collide, regulation requires particular care. Any rules on RPAs need to cater for a wide range of users, with varying skills and purposes, and enable beneficial applications while protecting wildlife. </p>
<p>There are strong social and economic drivers for the removal of red tape. <a href="https://www.casa.gov.au/aircraft/landing-page/flying-drones-australia">Australia</a> and the United States have introduced permissive regimes for lower-risk use, including recreational activity. In New Zealand, RPAs are considered as aircraft and controlled by civil aviation legislation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-drone-rules-with-more-eyes-in-the-sky-expect-less-privacy-66202">New drone rules: with more eyes in the sky, expect less privacy</a>
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<p>Wildlife disturbance, or other impacts on the environment, are not specifically mentioned in these rules and control options depend on existing wildlife law.</p>
<p>The lack of consideration of wildlife impacts in civil aviation rules creates a gap, which is accompanied by an absence of policy guidance. As a consequence, the default position for limiting RPA operations comes from the general requirement for property owner consent. </p>
<h2>RPA and spatial controls</h2>
<p>RPA operators wanting to fly over conservation land have to get a permit from the <a href="http://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/apply-for-permits/business-or-activity/aircraft-activities/">Department of Conservation</a>, which has recognised wildlife disturbance as a potential issue. </p>
<p>On other public land, we found that local authorities take a patchy and inconsistent approach to RPA activity, with limited consideration of effects on wildlife. On private land, efforts to control impacts to wildlife depend on the knowledge of property owners.</p>
<p>Protection of wildlife from RPA impacts is further confounded by limitations of legislation that governs the protection of wildlife and resource use and development. The Wildlife Act 1953 needs updating to provide more effective control of disturbance effects to species. </p>
<p>Marine mammals get some protection from aircraft disturbance under species-specific legislation. Other than that, aircraft are exempt from regulation under the <a href="http://www.mfe.govt.nz/rma">Resource Management Act</a>, which only requires noise control for airports. As a result, tools normally used to control spatial impacts, such as protective zoning, setbacks and buffers for habitat and species are not available.</p>
<p>This makes sense for aircraft flying at 8,000m or more, but drones use space differently, are controlled locally, and generate local effects. It is also clear that equipment choices and methods of RPA operation can reduce risks to wildlife. </p>
<h2>Keeping drones out of sensitive spaces</h2>
<p>Dunedin City Council in New Zealand recently <a href="https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/beach-reserve-rules-signed">approved a bylaw</a> banning drones from ecologically sensitive areas. This is a good start but we think a more consistent and universal approach is required to protect threatened species. </p>
<p>As a starter, all RPA operations should be guided by specific policy and made available on civil aviation websites, addressing impacts to wildlife and RPA methods of operation. In addition, we advocate for research into regulatory measures requiring, where appropriate, distance setbacks of RPA operations from threatened and at risk species. </p>
<p>Distance setbacks are already used in the protection of marine mammals from people, aircraft and other sources of disturbance. Setbacks benefit species by acting as a mobile shield in contrast to a fixed area protection. </p>
<p>Congestion of space is a condition of modern life, and the forecast exponential growth of RPA in the environment indicates that space will become even more contested in future, both in the air and on the ground. We argue that stronger measures that recognise the potential impacts on wildlife, how this may differ from species to species, and how this may be concentrated in certain locations, are required to deliver better protection for threatened species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The drone market is booming, with some unwanted consequences for wildlife. A new study argues that threatened species might need extra protections.Pip Wallace, Senior lecturer in Environmental Planning, University of WaikatoIain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of WaikatoRoss Martin, Doctoral Candidate (Coastal Ecology), University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.