Able to stay in the air for up to 30 minutes at a time, with quick battery changes, a lone controller or multiple drones in autonomous flight can cause persistent disruption. Regulations notwithstanding, drones are certainly capable of flight up to 6,000m altitude and up to 8km away from their operator – easily bringing them into the same airspace as passenger aircraft approaching or taking-off at airports. Recent studies by the University of Dayton have shown that a drone strike on an aircraft will cause more damage than an equivelant bird strike incident.
[Source: Airport World]
