We already make some of these drones right here in Australia. Yes they are small and are largely limited to aerial observation or merchandising assisting photography.
What works in models is almost always applicable to much larger aircraft. The old DC3 was once regarded as the workhorse/airborne truck of the army during WW11, and an updated diesel powered, very long distance version, could conceivably be mass produced right here and applied to just what has been outlined/proposed and or, routine military resupply or intell gathering?
The excellent article was both far-sighted and thought provoking; and indeed, a pleasant change from the run of the mill reasons, why it can't be done or won't ever happen. Rhrosty.

Dream on Jack,they are weapons of impersonalised war used to kill people for power and profit.

Just wondering if any of you folk ever think things through to their logical conclusion.

If the yanks had been doing that after WW11, they might have behaved differently in Germany & Japan.

It was US aid, that was reestablishing the German car industry, & establishing one in Japan.

I wonder, if they had realised their actions were leading to the ultimate destruction of their own motor industry, would they have been quite so generous.

I also wonder, if the Ozzie troops who died defending Malaysia against the communist insurgency after WW11, would have done so, if they realised that the government of the place was more interested in kicking us in the teeth, as soon as they could, rather than saying thanks. Perhaps they would have gone on strike.

As far as I'm concerned, aid is a dirty word. Where ever I've seen it in action, not a single bit of good was done by it, or the by any of the NGOs who Live off it.

Government cannot be corrupt only absent, people therefore, cannot occupy the land in peace. Ninety percent of public payroll employees are corrupted as they are paid to look the other way at what harm their payroll causes. They are not government. The universal function of government is to govern the land not the people on it.

Same as economy their isn't one. As taxation is imposed, we can't be anonymous and therefore freedom is a pipe dream. As no government governs the land, corruption on the land is the majority of human behaviour everywhere. And on the land it happens. This boom-bust land price cycle, as the excellent work of the Land Values Research Group points out elsewhere @onlineOpinion. But for the Prof. to argue for technology as a solution smacks of Brand USA and the Military Industrial Establishment doing their thing.