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The Drones Are Coming… Or Are They?
Why China’s determination to create a “low-altitude economy” presages “interesting times”
For readers of a certain age, the word drone evokes not Ukraine’s dogged resistance to Russian invasion and occasionally brilliant tactical strikes against Russian military assets but instead the oak-and-leather ambience of a second-rate Gentleman’s Club in London often frequented by Bertie Wooster and named after the sterile bee. Today, however, the word drone is firmly associated with electrically-powered light aircraft, some weighing as little as half a kilogram (that’s two-and-a-third twigs plus quarter of a pebble in Freedom Units).
In the West, drones are used by enthusiasts to whiz irritatingly over the heads of more restrained citizens strolling through formerly bucolic countryside and by film crews who can now obtain aerial shots without the expense of hiring a helicopter. Occasionally some antisocial emotional cripple thinks it would be “funny” to fly a drone into a commercial aircraft taking off or landing — presumable the same type of moron who just a few years ago would divert themselves by aiming laser-pointers into the cockpit.
In China, however, drones have moved far beyond the hobbyist market. China’s leadership sees drones as the next great frontier, a market…
