Photo credit: William Warby licensed under CC BY 2.0
by David M. Sykes, Vice Chair, The Quiet Coaliltion
So far, nobody outside Australia–where they’ve been tested and found to be very annoying–seems much concerned about noise from drone deliveries. But this video shows you drones that can be up to 8 feet wide, have 8 propellers, and carry up to 500 lbs:
That’s a small, driverless helicopter. And it’s going to be a lot noisier than one that delivers pizza or prescriptions or Amazon Prime to your neighbor’s door.
What about the noise? Somebody must be thinking about regulating these things, right?
Wrong. Drone delivery was enthusiastically embraced by the 2018 FAA Re-Authorization Act. So it’s up to the FAA—notorious for it’s unwillingness to restrain aviation noise.
Watch for them in your own or your neighbors’ yards soon. Drones are definitely not toys and they won’t be “merely annoying”–they will be loud and destroy your peace and quiet if Congress doesn’t act soon.
