UAS, airports, and airspace

[Live2Learn]

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/acrp/acrp_rpt_144.pdf

It's lookin' like we'll see mixed traffic of UAS and manned aircraft in the near future.  This report, while based on airports with towers, suggests small GA airports as well as busy towered airports may be affected.  Ditto for airport sponsors, owners, operators, managers (and yes, users). 

[Live2Learn]

I ran across an interesting article about impact pulse energy resulting from crewed aircraft and small drones.  The impulse energy from a collision is impressive.  https://aerokinetics.com/real-consequences-of-toy-drones/  Depending upon where the drone hit the manned aircraft, the alignment of flight path, and other factors the outcome could be cosmetic or catastrophic.  In any case, colliding with a small drone is very likely to cause a lot more damage than would occur with a bird of the same weight.  The authors point out the obvious:  "Birds are squishy" while drones are made of metal, plastic, and other materials that don't deform as easily on impact.

[Live2Learn]

This http://www.nhbr.com/February-5-2016/Emerging-use-of-drones-raises-insurance-issues/ article on insuring operators, manufacturers, businesses, etc. who use drones is interesting.  I wonder if the drone insurance and liability arena will have the same profoundly disastrous impact on UAS use in the U.S. as it has had on GA?  With GA insurance is a big deal for aircraft, manufacturers, mechanics, and businesses.  While the airframes aren't that spendy for the smaller drones, some of the big ones run into real money.  The potential for damage with a drone is huge.  If a drone can carry a package for Amazon, it can carry C-4 for a terrorist.  We've seen youtube videos of armed drones, and drones have come close to striking heads of state (captured in video of German Chancellor Merkel's encounter with a drone while on the election circuit, for example).