In our Senior design courses, every year, we are required to publish an ethics report on our project. For most projects this is a blow off assignment - just a simple checkbox that's required for students on the way to their project, and for the Universities to follow the ABET accreditation policy. But for our project, for our company, ethics is our justification for existing. So over the next month, I'm going to go section by section through our ethics report and cover the key subjects.

Ethics of Observation Drones, and the Ryan Model Fire Fly 

On the warm morning of August 20th, 1964 flies a single Lockheed C-130 Hercules support aircraft over the picturesque island of Okinawa. It made history by launching the world's first combat surveillance drone, the Ryan Model 147A Fire Fly [1], into the Communist People's Republic of China. Of the 2 drones that the C-130 carries, only one makes it to the landing point in Taiwan, but it lands with photos of the Chinese Communist Party's (PLA) naval reserves, military buildup, and information on their nearest airbase - all without risking human lives. The United States Air Force (USAF), Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) Air Force (KAF), considered it a major success and claimed that it would be the future of reconnaissance as such a system would prevent wars, save lives, and reduce conflict. The photos they produced helped deter a PLA invasion of Taiwan, and ultimately saved hundreds of lives on both sides of the conflict.

But within 2 weeks of that first usage, the 147A Fire Fly flew again, this time over the humid and dense jungle skies of Vietnam. And a day after it returns, a squadron of B-52 Stratofortress high altitude strategic bombers follow its flight route [1], dropping hundreds of bombs over the places that once stood within the lens of the Fire Fly. We know not today who was the first death of an unmanned aerial vehicle, nor did those who flew the 147A during that mission 57 years ago, but we know which Fire Fly took the images that led to their deaths. It is only with hindsight that today we, Limited Technologies, must remind ourselves of the steps others have already taken. In a test scenario we have written for spring semester, we provide the flying camera lens for an entry team to line up the perfect moment - to arrest a cardboard cutout. We tread the same path as Ryan Aeronautical did in 1964.

This leaves us with the founder's dilemma. To design or not to design a product and push it for industry usage. Our products are designed to serve a single, ethical purpose - but the casualties which are brought from it cannot rest evenly on the shoulders of any human. To address this, the only option we have is to be first in hopes that we have enough control over the future in order to steer the rudder we have to save the lives we may be able to.

Disclaimer

While there are multiple members working for or are members of Limited Technologies, the opinions and concepts brought forward are the sole responsibility and writing of the founder and CEO of Limited Technologies, Bernard Li.