At some point in the not-too-distant future, all those Christmas-gift quadrotors and Star Wars replica drones will be joined by medium-size burger bombers and two-hour-guaranteed delivery aerial vehicles for fast food restaurants and on-line retailers sending their wares to a landing zone near your front door, or perhaps the roof of your apartment. This probably isn’t what Alfred Lord Tennyson had in mind when he wrote: ” For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; “Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;” (From Locksley Hall, 1835) There are already rules governing drone flight, but no tests for competence of pilots, who will be often untrained, unaware, or uncaring. For larger drones and commercial flights, we can probably expect stringent rules, but for the growing number of amateurs unaware of the …
