As US Space Command prepares to make Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, its permanent home, the city is poised to play an even bigger role in the nation’s aerospace and defense ecosystem. The relocation, which is expected to bring about 1,400 jobs and significant federal investment, is already fueling a wave of new partnerships and innovation in what many call Rocket City.
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The Mobile Police Department in Alabama has developed a drone rescue kit that can deliver a floatation device to swimmers in distress, and help stabilize them until a swim team can reach their location. What makes this “Float Responder” aquatic rescue drone even more special is the fact that it has been designed to honor the memory of a first responder who died during a surf rescue earlier this year.
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Drone footage captured in Alabama and Florida has shown the full extent of destruction caused by Hurricane Sally on September 16. Hurricane Sally hit the Gulf Coast of Alabama early Wednesday morning as a category two storm.
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The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama is planning to use drones to enhance public and officer safety after 18 months of training and the purchase of DJI drones. The Sheriff’s Office enlisted Adorama Business Solutions to help purchase and set the drones up.
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The environmentalist group Black Warrior Riverkeeper is concerned about a new drone bill In the Alabama House of Representatives.
The Alabama legislature is today trying to pass a bill (HB36 & SB45) that would “provide for the crime of unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure by prohibiting the operation of an unmanned aircraft system, or drone, to conduct surveillance of, gather evidence or collect information about, or photographically or electronically record a critical infrastructure.” The bill specifically adds the term pipeline to the term critical infrastructure. This would, for instance, make it illegal for environmentalists to use drones to monitor pollution.
Since April 2016, there have been five hazardous or at least unauthorized drone flights reported, flying too close to the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama, which happens to be the busiest airport in the state. This was revealed by ABC 33/40 after a review of the Federal Aviation Administration records. In two cases the drones passed within 200 feet of private airplanes. These reports come in the wake of other drone incidents over Staten Island, NY, Canada, New Zealand, and England.