The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is planning to fly a large drone over a stretch of highway outside Columbus as part of a pilot traffic surveillance program—and the department had to get special permission from the feds to do it, according to a report on Cleveland.com.
The permission involved an allowance to fly the aircraft out of view of its on-the-ground pilot.
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ODOT workers will pilot the 20-pound Censys Sentaero aircraft, which has a wingspan of 7.5 feet, over a portion of U.S. 33 northwest of Columbus as a supplement to traffic cameras already installed on the ground.
The website says the drone will be the first of its size in the country to be approved for that specific purpose, and only the second of its size to be approved to fly over people and traffic for any reason without an on-board parachute.
