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Showing posts from April, 2018

Final Blog

As for the military application of UAVs, how have they transformed military strategy? Has their integration been efficient (consider all aspects - from financial to ethical)? As the world turns over and night turns today, the human machine continues on its the tireless mission to improve and prosper. Since the times when humans started to populate the earth, and even before that, species have battled for resources for food, shelter, and safety. The ways of which we have waged this age-old war has changed considerably since its beginning but has not become any less important. From the age of the club to the now current UAV, war pushes our technology and resources to the maximum to win in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of casualty to life and property. On February 10 th , 2018 I wrote briefly about the transformation of the military stratagem regarding the acceptance of drones. Drone use has taken significantly greater roles in recent times because they allow for s

ATC Privatization

Air Traffic Control, known as ATC, works off of a system of ground-based radar. This is a system that dates back to the 1970s that uses a “line of sight” reference. Once a radar echo picks up a sizeable mass in the air, the signal is bounced off the mass back to a receiver and the duration and direction are noted to calculate distance and height. While this system is relatively decent at getting aircraft from point A to point B, it is still very inefficient. According to Sara Breselor at wired.com, one man with bad intentions was able to directly put down 91,000 square miles of radar coverage by slicing cables and setting a fire in the basement of Chicago center (Breselor, 2017). While the man may have been suicidal and a long-standing employee, he was able to put down almost 10,000 square miles of coverage for aircraft above 10,000 feet. Another problem with our current system is that if the radar cannot “see” the aircraft, it cannot detect it. The radar has to have a direct line of