Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

Ehrhardt, Thomas. "Drone" 12/31/16 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain

Arguments occur everyday around the world, on subjects large and small. Often times, in this new digital world, arguments in the Aerospace field is fought over the internet, on news sites like Bloomberg and Wired. In two articles on these sites, McCain Chides Colleagues for Protecting Russian Launch Engines, and Things Will Get Messy If We Don't Start Wrangling Drones Now I will explore the arguments and characters behind general online debates in the aerospace field. Do these debates interest you? Let me know in the comments below.

What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain cocisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

McCain:  Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is outraged with Dick Durbin, the top Democrat of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and Richard Shelby, a Republican of the same committee, for trying to continue using Russian RD-180 rocket engines in the 2016 spending bill. McCain would rather only have U.S. organizations, such as the private aerospace companies SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed be able to compete, lowering the number of competitors.

Drones:  Parker Gyokeres is having issues with his professional DJI Inspire drone and its antiquated geofencing software. In Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Abington, Massachusetts, a former blimp hanger, he can't fly his work drone as its software believes it is in a no-fly zone, even though the base was closed in 1997. As 2016 goes on, drones are exploding in popularity, and the argument for their restriction is also conflicting with their intended usage, creating new challengers for their designers and builders.

Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

McCain:  The most sympathetic character of the story is Dick Durbin, who is the top Democrat of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, who supports the usage of the Russian rockets as they would increase competition and allow more room for the development of rockets for the defense industry. Durbin evokes sympathy because his argument makes the most logical sense to me, allowing competition from more reliable rockets until more are proven seems reasonable compared to McCain's outrage.

Drones: The most sympathetic character is Parker Gyokeres, a man who uses drones for his job and is being harmed by companies fear of drone pilots, and the limiting software put on drones that can't be effectively updates or improved.

Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

McCain: The worst character is McCain's outrage story is McCain himself, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who leads his committee on decisions affected the armed services, as he seems to be jumping the gun and shooting off his temper simply because he didn't get his way with hating Russia this year. Our reliance on outside rockets should end yes, but it could wait another year for more competitors to arise and take the place of the rockets currently being phased out.

Drones: The worst character in the drone story is the FAA, who controls regulation of air vehicles but hasn't taken an effective stand on software and its policies on drones yet, leaving drone pilots to the mercy of companies and their own geofencing software to control their product.