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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > June > 20
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Kevin Riley: Can Dayton soar with UAV industry?
If you believe at least some of the hype, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will eventually fill the skies.
The advances in remotely piloted aircraft have come fast and furious, and the Dayton region wants a place in what’s expected to be a huge industry.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates put UAVs in the news in 2008 during a speech at Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., when he slammed military leaders for being too slow to use UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The situation changed quickly.
Since then, the remotely piloted systems have gotten more public attention as cutting-edge military weapons that can perform high-risk duty without jeopardizing pilots’ lives. UAVs were also called into duty to survey the damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and lately they’ve been used to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.
But there are many more uses, beyond the needs of military and government agencies.
The Federal Aviation Administration says 50 U.S. universities, companies and organizations are developing 155 UAV designs. Popular Science says more than 1,500 UAVs are being built around the world.
UAVs could be used for aerial photography and mapping, surveying land, monitoring crops, battling forest fires, even for watching weather and traffic.
The growth industry could be good for Dayton.
The Air Force Research Laboratory, which is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, has developed some of the key technologies to making UAVs viable — and AFRL is central to their future.
Of course, AFRL’s job is to serve Air Force and military needs. But companies that want to use the technology in the private sector will be hanging around the base’s gates.
There are challenges to widespread use of the technology. One is how to manage their presence in the country’s air space.
The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for air safety and for the complex system of setting the rules for where aircraft can fly. When any of us get on a plane, we count on the FAA’s system to keep us safe; so do private pilots, helicopter users and even the military.
If thousands of UAVs are buzzing around, will the skies be too dangerous? It’s one thing for a UAV to fly over a war zone in Afghanistan, it’s a different matter for dozens to be over New York City. The FAA, a large, slow-to-change federal bureaucracy is being cautious.
In November, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told an aviation industry group: “As of today, unmanned aircraft systems are not ready for seamless or routine use yet in civilian airspace. Without a pilot who can look and scan to the left and the right — just the way you and I do when we’re backing out of a parking space — there’s a perceived level of risk that the American public isn’t ready for.”
Experts seem to agree that the FAA is years away from figuring this out.
So where does the Dayton region fit in?
First, the ambition is to make the region a center for the UAV industry. That likely means that we’d need research, testing and production capabilities.
AFRL already provides the core research, and it seems that we could attract and grow companies to build the UAVs. (Co-Operative Engineering Services, based in Xenia, develops and builds UAVs of 100 pounds or smaller.)
One barrier is identifying a good place to fly and test UAVs nearby.
The FAA requires special permission to fly a UAV, except in “restricted” air space. We don’t have airspace designated that way, so AFRL and others pack them up and test UAVs elsewhere.
One idea is to use the airport in Wilmington. That proposal has some traction because of the suitability of the site and the emotion around DHL’s devastating departure. The Buckeye and Brush Creek military flying area over rural Highland and Adams counties is another possibility.
Hopes are that the FAA will see trying out such an idea as a first step in solving its larger problem with UAVs coming into general use. The AFRL is a leader in “sense and avoid” technology, which is central to settling safety concerns.
In any case, our region and its leaders need to stay on the UAV bandwagon and push for the air space to test them.
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TweetEditorial: Double-dippers invite voters to rise up
Ohio can’t have rules that allow select groups of public employees to reap huge financial benefits while contributing to their pension funds’ slide toward insolvency.
The problem is especially worrisome in the State Teachers Retirement System. The argument does not hold up that it’s OK for a school superintendent to make as much as a quarter of a million dollars a year by “double-dipping” because it isn’t hurting anyone.
The practice legitimately infuriates the public — the very voters who are asked to raise their taxes for schools. Taxpayers are appalled that administrators can retire in their early 50s, begin collecting a pension, and stay in their old job at a reduced salary or sometimes earning more than before they retired.
This defies the definition of “retirement.”
Meanwhile, public pension funds are in trouble. The fund managers who represent government employees have actually proposed a bailout requiring taxpayers to kick in even more toward their retirements. Not going to happen.
A decade ago, the legislature changed its rules to make it easier for educators to retire and continue working. The result is lavish rewards for lucky superintendents.
A study by a coalition of Ohio newspapers, including the Dayton Daily News, showed a quarter of Ohio’s 613 school superintendents are double-dipping.
But what’s good for some superintendents is, in the long run, harmful to every educator who hopes to someday draw a pension. The teachers’ fund has $40 billion in unfunded liabilities.
Several factors are precipitating the pension funds’ problems. The big ones are health-care costs and the economy. Pension funds did not initially provide retiree health care; but in good times 40 years ago, health benefits were added. Now exploding costs are eating away at the funds.
That problem has been compounded by huge investment losses stemming from the stock market downturn. The state, facing a multi-billion dollar budget deficit next year, can’t and shouldn’t offer help.
Meanwhile, the sweetheart deal superintendents and some others get is far sweeter than what most teachers can hope for. Some districts don’t permit teachers to double dip. Others penalize them with lost seniority or much lower pay.
Why the double standard if this practice is legitimate and — as some insist — not a financial drag?
You can’t blame the superintendents for taking the deals. They’re jumping at the chance to double dip because they’d be crazy not to.
What they don’t acknowledge, however, is that the practice is becoming so extensive it has to be having negative financial implications. When people have every incentive to retire early — and thus will pay into the system for shorter periods and collect pensions for longer periods — that hurts the plans’ bottom line.
For sure, Ohio’s rules are out of whack. Why would we want people to retire prematurely, make out like a bandit and then stay on the job because they’re making so much double-dipping that they can’t afford to quit? How is that a good thing for the young up-and-comers in teaching and public service?
Shutting down double-dipping won’t make the state pension funds’ problems go away. It’s a small piece of a multi-pronged issue. But a small percentage of people are exploiting rules in a way that could ruin a good thing for the vast majority of government employees. They must be stopped.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Ohio government, Ohio politics, Scott Elliott
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