new York
CNN
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Large drones have become a major topic of conversation in New Jersey: residents have reported seeing drones the size of small cars flying around at night; Officials aren’t sure if they’re seeing anything unusual or if they’re even drones.

But even if the New Jersey sightings turn out to be something else, there are big drones. Unmanned aircraft experts say they can offer a wide range of potential applications for hobbyists, commercial users or the military.

“There are so many uses for these devices. It’s almost limitless,” Ryan Wallace, associate professor of aeronautical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told CNN.

Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are still trying to confirm exactly what New Jersey residents are seeing and where they are coming from – or whether they are drones at all, as opposed to regular planes flying normal routes and carried by people be misidentified.

“We have reports from the public and law enforcement dating back several weeks,” the FBI Newark field office said Dec. 3.

New Jersey residents have described seeing drones flying overhead, sometimes in groups.

Drone sightings have been reported in Morris and Somerset counties, according to local officials. Both counties are in the New York metropolitan area.

However, the sightings did not just occur among concerned residents. The U.S. Coast Guard, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said one of its employees came across the drones.

Department of Homeland Security and White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that many of the reported sightings were actually “manned aircraft” operating legally, and experts told CNN that they were Objects in the “sighting” videos they reviewed appeared to be “manned aircraft.”

The White House also said there is “currently no evidence” that the mysterious sightings “pose a threat to national security or public safety or have a foreign connection.”

Still, New Jersey residents are frustrated that there are no clear answers to what they are seeing.

“You can see flashing red and green lights on the corners. It just changes direction, goes from 90 to about 270 degrees and just flies in different directions,” a New Jersey resident told CNN. “And obviously airplanes can’t do that.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he was also pressing the federal government for more information. In a post on

Most people are familiar with the smaller drones that amateur photographers use to take photos. In theory, a hobbyist could also buy or build a larger drone.

“The wings don’t add much to the mass of the drone, they are actually the lightest parts of the drone,” said Pramod Abichandani, director of the Advanced Air Mobility Laboratory at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. “Even if you look at multi-rotor drones like a quadcopter… the extensions on this quadcopter are essentially carbon fiber rods, super light.”

According to William Austin, president of Warren Community College in New Jersey, who studies unmanned aircraft and founded the school, the weight is important because you need special – and more unusual – permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones that more than 55 pounds weigh drone program.

Hobbyists also have to be prepared to spend a lot of money on such large drones, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, experts say.

More commonly, large drones are used for commercial or military purposes. They can be used, for example, in agriculture, for surveying or spraying fields. Or for infrastructure, to assess the condition of roads and buildings or for mapping. (However, these applications would almost certainly require the drones to fly during the day rather than at night if the sightings are said to have occurred in New Jersey.)

Some law enforcement agencies have begun using drones for search and rescue operations, although they don’t necessarily require particularly large drones.

Some larger, heavier drones have also been used for commercial transport (e.g. deliveries). “It’s not very common, but it’s not unusual either,” Wallace said.

The military can use large drones for surveillance, equipped with all types of sensors – from powerful traditional cameras to infrared sensors.

And in the coming years, Americans could see even larger and more powerful drones flying around, Austin said, such as those made by Chinese passenger transport company EHang.

But for now, he said, “you probably won’t see them here because you have to go through so many steps of FAA approval.” There are so few people who have such qualifications that the FAA would know pretty quickly who has them Drone flying in national airspace.”