The government thinks it’s just fine to use drones to spy upon the citizenry, but as to citizens using it for their own purposes, no way!
The Federal Aviation Administration is shooting down one brewery’s idea to deliver beer by drone:
Lakemaid Beer is brewed in Stevens Point, Wis., and distributed to several states in the region. But it was a very local delivery that put the company out of favor with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Minnesota-based company is receiving a flood of support and condolences after the FAA ruled that its beer delivery drone, which had only recently taken flight, had to be shut down.
Lakemaid calls itself the fishermen’s lager. It had hoped to use drones to deliver its beer to anglers in thousands of ice shacks, from the frozen northern lakes’ combination bait and beer shops. But the government says the brewer’s next test — which Lakemaid managing partner Jack Supple says was tentatively set for Minnesota’s Lake Mille Lacs and the Twin Pines resort — cannot proceed.
But of course! Never mind that the FAA does not have jurisdiction over the airspace under 400 feet. (And forget the fact that jurisdiction over air is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.)
They’ll just say that they do, in much the same way that the FCC tries to assert jurisdiction over the Internet.