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Transponders on drones may be required

heinzpilot

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Just finished watching a so-called "homeland security expert" on Foxnews this morning (11/13/2017) stating that due to the risk of drones being used by terrorist to disperse chemical and biological agents, he is pushing for all drones flown in the U.S. to have FAA transponders on them. If they don't law enforcement would be allowed to shoot them down with new anti-drone weapons that will be made available to them. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue yet. I hold an FAA UAS airman ceritificate myself so I'm all about the safe operation of drones, but I'm not sure what this would mean for all the law abiding drone operators.
 
It’s a real threat. I’d argue though that it would be easier to invest the same time effort and $$$ into policing and intelligence to detect these nut jobs before they launch attacks rather than attempting to retrospectively police all the drones that are already bought, paid for and in the air.

I also think geo fencing major event locations in advance to prevent flying in these areas (unless you're properly licenced), and making regular syncs of these geo fencing databases a requirement for lift off is a good idea to minimise risk.

No syncy poos in x days = no flying be it online or offline. We live in a relatively well connected world. I think this isn't an unreasonable hurdle to overcome as a pilot. You should be planning your flights in advance anyway.
 
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Yep drone laws are like gun laws or any other laws, the only ones that abide by them are law abiding citizens who actually get penalized by them. The criminals, terrorists, etc. don't abide by laws if they did they wouldn't be criminals! So I can see the terrorist using a drone now.... Pre flight check list- Battery check, props check, control check, airspace clear check, altitude maximum 400 feet check, transponder check, no flying over people check, remove safety pin from IED check.... NOT!
 
Drones could being used by terrorists to disperse chemical and biological agents, but so can any vehicle, door handle, food, air conditioner, envelope....
 
Speaking of Homeland Security, this is a very interesting article.

The TSA is a pathetic failure

I, earlier in my FAA career, took part in some of these "trying to get through security" tests and sauntered through CLT with a suitcase that contained a fake bomb. Just chatted up the screener and walked right through.

but I digress
 
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Just finished watching a so-called "homeland security expert" on Foxnews this morning (11/13/2017) stating that due to the risk of drones being used by terrorist to disperse chemical and biological agents, he is pushing for all drones flown in the U.S. to have FAA transponders on them. If they don't law enforcement would be allowed to shoot them down with new anti-drone weapons that will be made available to them. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue yet. I hold an FAA UAS airman ceritificate myself so I'm all about the safe operation of drones, but I'm not sure what this would mean for all the law abiding drone operators.
This is a very good idea.
 
Bit pointless really, what purpose would it actually serve?

If a drone has a transponder does that make it a non threat. Would the terrorists not just fit a transponder.

If a terrorist was using a vehicle I'm sure they would make sure that it was 100% legal to avoid being stopped before acting out their plan. I'm sure same would go for a drone.
 
Even if all new drones were required to have transponders, there are millions already out there that do not. Anyone intent on using a drone for nefarious purposes would not buy one with a transponder. It would be easy enough to disable the transponder if it had one.
 
It would be easy enough to disable the transponder if it had one

seriously.

Just look at the 9/11 hijackers. I was working the airspace over NY the day this happened. shut the transponder off, go low, and get caught up in the ground clutter.

CJ
 
'Homeland security expert' well im guessing he had to think up something to justify hes fee, I'd take it with a pinch of salt.
Luckily we are clearly all 'drone experts' so are far more qualified to know hes talking boll*cks when it comes to drones, than a plain old 'homeland security expert' :D
 
Do you really believe everything you hear on Fox (Fake) News. My dad use to get all of his news from the National Enquirer. To each his own.

BTW, with the right equipment, HLS or the police for that matter can all ready receive and read the ID off of our Mavic's radio signals. And with the DJI serial number data base, should have the owner's ID.
 
Can we parse-out the transponder (XPDR) issue from the context in which it was raised? Obviously, a miscreant would never fit a XPDR to an aircraft.

But the concept of a XPDR fitted to a sUAS makes a lot of sense for the safety of the NAS. GA pilots are blind to Part 101 operations. Having a XPDR on a sUAS would allow it to show up on the GA pilot's ADS-B system. These systems are used by a fair number of GA pilots today, and will be required on all new and existing AC in a couple of years. Could this negate the need for the 400-ft recommendation/restriction for Parts 101/107? Probably not.

The real problem may be making a XPDR that is both powerful and small/light (the TT21 XPDR weighs 440g and is 48mm H x 68mm W x 160mm L). Certainly, at this point, it would not be feasible for the majority of <55-lb sUAS airframes. Perhaps I just described the next million dollar opportunity. :D
 
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bumblee transponder.png
can't get much smaller then that. transponder stuck on bumblebee.

from wikipedia

Aviation
For more details on this topic, see Transponder (aeronautics).

Another type of transponder occurs in identification friend or foe systems in military aviation and in air traffic control secondary surveillance radar (beacon radar) systems for general aviation and commercial aviation. Primary radar works best with large all-metal aircraft, but not so well on small, composite aircraft. Its range is also limited by terrain and rain or snow and also detects unwanted objects such as automobiles, hills and trees. Furthermore, it cannot always estimate the altitude of an aircraft. Secondary radar overcomes these limitations but it depends on a transponder in the aircraft to respond to interrogations from the ground station to make the plane more visible.

Depending on the type of interrogation, the transponder sends back a transponder code (or "squawk code", Mode A) or altitude information (Mode C) to help air traffic controllers to identify the aircraft and to maintain separation between planes. Another mode called Mode S (Mode Select) is designed to help avoiding over-interrogation of the transponder (having many radars in busy areas) and to allow automatic collision avoidance. Mode S transponders are backward compatible with Modes A and C. Mode S is mandatory in controlled airspace in many countries. Some countries have also required, or are moving towards requiring, that all aircraft be equipped with Mode S, even in uncontrolled airspace. However, in the field of general aviation there have been objections to these moves, because of the cost, size, limited benefit to the users in uncontrolled airspace, and, in the case of balloons and gliders, the power requirements during long flights.
 
Nevermind!

The Bee XPDR details were presented in June of 2012 at an IEEE Conference in Montreal. You can find the presentation HERE. Unfortunately, something this small has very limited capabilities and a maximum range of slightly over 1/2 mile; not to mention the impossibility of ADS-B support.
View media item 1381
 
Cool, thanks for finding this. it wouldn't take much to give it a little more range and who flies more than a mile or so anyway.
 
No problem! It's pretty fascinating, actually.

For ADS-B capability, you need many miles of range. For Air-toAir, you're looking at 170-200 nm (195-230 sm) and for Air-to-Ground, you're looking at 180 nm (207 sm).

Wikipedia: ADS-B
 
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