Warren County Community College’s Will Austin Shares Insights on Public Misconceptions, and the Role of Education
Recent reports of nighttime drone sightings in New Jersey have sparked widespread concern, with some citizens raising alarms about large drones and potential security risks. The sightings were the focus of yesterday’s Congressional hearing titled “Safeguarding the Homeland from Unmanned Aerial Systems.” However, Dr. Will Austin, President of Warren County Community College and a recognized expert in drone technology, provides a balanced perspective on the headlines. Austin has been asked to review many of the images and videos purporting to show the unidentified drones in the air.
“After analyzing numerous videos shared by concerned citizens, I’m inclined to believe that many of the reported ‘large drones’ were actually manned aircraft mistakenly identified as drones,” Austin explained in a recent DRONELIFE interview. In addition to cell tower lights and other stationary infrastructure, he noted that smaller drones, such as DJI Mavics, have also been observed and are likely being operated legally.
Misconceptions About Drones: What the Public Gets Wrong
Dr. Austin highlighted several common misconceptions contributing to the public’s unease. Many of the images used to illustrate the drone sightings are simply lights in the sky – which Austin points out may have led to the misidentification of manned aircraft as drones. “Northern NJ has numerous airports, some of the largest in the nation, and many misidentifications appear to me to be airplanes at night on approach to land,” he said.
Many news outlets speculate that the “unidentified drones” may be spying on local military infrastructure. Austin points out that another prevalent misunderstanding involves the capabilities of drones and their sensors at night. “Privacy or surveillance seems to be the largest misconception,” Austin pointed out, explaining that thermal sensors often struggle to provide clear images in darkness due to limitations like thermal loading.
Austin also addressed the public’s lack of knowledge about drones’ range and flight capabilities. “We professionals know there are very few drones with such a capability,” he said, referring to the false idea that drones can fly across the state without losing their radio signal. He attributed some of these errors to the parallax effect, an optical illusion where stationary objects appear to hover.
Media Hype and the Role of Public Perception
The surge in drone sightings has been fueled, in part, by media coverage, Austin suggested. He cited psychological studies, such as the Asch Conformity Experiments, to explain how public opinion can be influenced by widespread reports. “In simpler terms, people preferred to believe the lie over believing they could ever be fooled or mistaken,” he said.
The media attention has also encouraged some drone enthusiasts to take to the skies in search of these “mystery drones,” inadvertently increasing the number of reported sightings. “I drove around my region on Sunday (December 8th) and personally witnessed a multitude of commercial-off-the-shelf quadcopters basically sightseeing to find those mystery drones,” Austin noted.
A Call for Balanced Regulation and Investment
Dr. Austin sees the current debate as an opportunity to educate the public and policymakers about drones’ potential. He called for more meaningful discussions on how the U.S. can strengthen its drone industry to compete globally. “We need to have true hearings on drones and how we are falling behind our adversaries so we can pump a lot of development dollars into the drone economy,” he concluded.
Dr. Austin emphasized the importance of education in addressing these misconceptions and advancing the drone industry. Warren County Community College’s WarrenUAS program enrolls over 100 students, utilizing more than $5 million worth of equipment to prepare graduates for careers in fields like agriculture, law enforcement, and environmental protection.
“This is precisely why we began the program, now almost a decade ago. We saw the vast potential for drones, if professionalized, with properly trained professionals keeping safety at the forefront,” Austin said. He believes education is crucial to counteracting the negative attention drones often receive.
Austin warned against overregulation in response to public fears, which he feels could stifle the U.S. drone industry. “My greatest fear right now is that in an effort to make sure these drones are not secretly malicious machines from an adversary, we stifle our already struggling drone industry,” he said.
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Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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I’m sure that airplanes make a lot of noise compared to A drone. People have seen these hovering 150 feet above the trees. I don’t think a plank can do that you better rethink what you’ve been saying thank you.
If they were spying on anything, they wouldn’t be using navigation lights.
Dead give away, hear I am.
When I first saw this in the news I laughed thinking (a) a good example of how media hype is probably distorting reality, (b) another demonstration of how prone people these days are to paranoia and conspiracy theories, and most importantly (c) a reinforcement of my contention that the general public is not going to like the airspace pollution of drone delivery at any significant scale.
By pollution I mean more objects flying over and around them..
I am a drone instructor and I own a small commercial drone compay. The one question I keep wanting to ask….
1) Are these drones doing anything illegal?
They seem to have proper lighting for night flights.
They have not entered any TFRs zones or redtricted/prohibited areas, that have been reported.
2) Are they breaking and FAA regulations?
Do they have proper lighting for night flights?
Do they have sustained flights over people, vehicles or an open air assembly?
Are they staying within VLOS?
Are they invading anyone reasonable right to privacy of their home or residence?
3) Are these drones broadcasting Remote ID data?
If they are not, then the FAA could then take action against them. But they have not done so, from what I read so far. So, I am assuming they are broadcasting. Anyone can check if they are, as long as you have an android mobile device and the correct free app from Google Play. There are several available for free.
iPhones, as of this past summer, do not work well picking up remote ID broadcasts. They may have fixed that by now.
A question about this article: if that’s the case, why is it only attracting attention now? If so, people would see planes all the time at night and it would be something they do every day, so there wouldn’t be any fuss about it. And why don’t planes fly over the same areas just as often during the day?
A few points the expert minimizes, per the conclusions expressed within this article above:
• residents should be highly aware of how to differentiate the unique sound of manned aircraft within the area, due to high traffic and frequent patterns made
• generalizing all drones to the same capabilities is futile unless said expert has insight too into the military, not just hobbyist, capabilities and makeup of drones