Professor Simon Szreter (Letters, 27 July), in his criticism of Amazon’s plans to test drone delivery systems, claims that “For the whole of human existence and all of our lives so far, the sky has been free for us all to look up to for quiet pleasures and the sense of freedom it evokes …”
In fact aircraft have interfered with the view for more than 200 years, with a corresponding legal framework for their regulation, initially based on law of trespass and later on statute law in the form of the Air Navigation and Transport Act, and the Air Navigation Order.
Professor Szreter may well be correct in his views on the nuisance caused by delivery drones, but he is wrong if he believes there is a golden age of clear skies to which we can return.
Michael Carley
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath
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