NASA successfully tests a drone traffic control system

[Plazma Inferno!]

NASA has been working on a UAS traffic management (UTM) system to handle the growing number of unmanned aerial vehicles taking to the skies. On Tuesday the system successfully underwent its largest test to date, with remote flights at all six FAA test sites this week.
As part of the testing, drone operators at each site simultaneously flew a variety of remote-controlled unmanned aircraft systems. The test sites are dispersed across the country and included locations in Alaska, North Dakota, Nevada, New York, Virginia, and Maryland. At one point, a whopping 24 drones took to the air at the same time during this early stage of testing.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/nasa-testing-drone-traffic-control-system/

I guess this means that if you want to fly a drone you have to register it with a central authority first?

 

[Q-reeus]

...a whopping 24 drones took to the air at the same time...

A 'whopping' 24? Ha ha ha. Already there's probably closer to three orders of magnitude greater flying around within any given daylight hours short time span - and that number set to grow exponentially. Given plans by e.g. Amazon, Pizza Hut, various postal and courier services, swelling ranks of amateur enthusiasts, and of course surveillance use by military/police/etc. NASA has launched into another challenge with guaranteed huge growth potential. Not to mention headache difficulties given the enormous mix of factors. As for registration - that will likely be litigation driven into law, but if adding a pricey transponder is part of registration, should greatly lighten NASA & partners workload.

 

[Ophiolite]

A timely test. Incidents appear to be on the increase, as this suspected drone hit on a BA flight landing at Heathrow last Sunday illustrate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36069002

 

[sculptor]

The "rules" seem to be about the same here(line of sight). However, last year, a friend of a neighbor reported loosing a drone while "out of sight".
During deer hunting season, I considered buying a drone with camera to check out the local deer population. Lazy man's way of hunting------let the drone find the deer, then approach from down wind. E'en better(?) Use a drone to drive the deer to the kill zone? (labor saving device---could save hundreds of hours of walking or sitting and waiting ---- maybe next season?)