Are Drones the ultimate boys’ toys or a godsend for snoopers and terrorists?

As cheap as £28, they’re Christmas must-haves. But after a near-miss with a plane at Heathrow . . .

FOR some, it’ll be the best present they have had in years. But could this year’s must-have gadget cause a fatal accident or, worse, help a terrorist to launch a deadly attack? Walk around any High Street electronics shop this Christmas and you’ll see the shelves stacked with strangely- shaped flying machines. The remote- controlled devices, officially described as ‘ multi- copters’ or ‘ unmanned aerial vehicles’, are usually known by a much more recognisable name: drones.

These amateur drones are only distantly related to the military contraptions the British and Americans have been flying over Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years. These don’t drop bombs or monitor enemy troop movements.

They look like giant Lego-built spiders, but are essentially a 21st-century version of the remote-control aeroplane you might have played with as a child.

The modern- day toys hover and whizz and swoop through the air. And they’re flying off the shelves.

It is estimated that more than 30,000 drones will have been bought by British consumers by the end of the year — a high proportion of them as Christmas presents. The electronics chain Maplin says that sales within its stores are up 300 per cent on 2013.

But as drones move from the battlefield into our back gardens and parks, serious questions are increasingly being asked about their safety.

This week, it emerged that a passenger jet was involved in a near miss with a drone near Heathrow airport in July. The pilot was flying at an altitude of 700ft when he saw the unauthorised machine, which was invisible to radar, flying near his plane.

There was a similar incident at Southend Airport two months earlier — and more recently a Virgin Atlantic pilot reported seeing a drone as he came in to land at New York’s JFK airport.

Frightening stuff, given that if a drone were sucked into a jet plane’s engine, it could have the same effect as a bird strike, which might prove catastrophic on take-off or landing.

Drones have been put to other dangerous uses, too. In October, a European Championship football match between Serbia and Albania descended into a riot after a drone was deliberately flown inside the stadium in Belgrade trailing an Albanian flag, much to the fury of the Serbs.

And sometimes they simply end up causing accidents. In New York this week, a TGI Friday’s restaurant used a hovering drone dangling a piece of mistletoe to encourage dining couples to kiss each other. Unfortunately, after colliding with one woman’s hand, it took a lump out of her nose.

HOWEVER, a more serious issue relating to drones is their ability to invade just about anyone’s privacy. Because it’s possible to attach a camera to them, it is relatively simple to fly over someone’s property and take a picture of whatever they might happen to be doing in private.

Indeed, paparazzi drones have become Hol l y wood’ s most feared gatecrashers, deploying long-lens cameras and video recorders over the private retreats of the stars.

One of those to complain vociferously was the singer Miley Cyrus, who spotted one hovering over her garden. Oscar-winner Ben Affleck’s actress wife Jennifer Garner has also reported seeing them flying over her property.

As a result of such intrusions, American law-makers are seeking to extend privacy laws to include the use of drones.

In Britain, there are strict regulations on where and how you can fly one. But there’s no doubt the rules are regularly breached by negligent fliers who may not have thought out the possible consequences.

And what about those with more malicious intent?

If a troublemaker can send a drone into a football stadium, and other users can fly them near airports, one can only imagine the harm that could potentially be inflicted by an extremist whose aim is to bring down an airliner.

The Civil Aviation Authority, the same agency that governs commercial airlines, is in charge of drawing up and enforcing the regulations around drones. It declines to comment on the security implications of the Heathrow incident, but its official guidance on the use of drones is stiffly worded: ‘Unmanned aircraft, irrespective of their size, are still classified as aircraft — they are not toys.’

It adds: ‘The person in charge of operating the controls of an unmanned aircraft is referred to as the pilot.’

The CAA rules forbid you from flying your drone within 50m (164ft) of any ‘person, vessel, vehicle or structure not under the control of the pilot’. Flying too close to a building, for example, is a breach of Article 167 of the Air Navigation Order 2009 and the maximum penalty is a £2,500 fine.

You must also keep the machine within sight at all times — which the CAA interprets as meaning you’re not allowed to fly your machine at any altitude higher than 400ft.

The problem is that though the CAA says drones are not toys, that’s not the view of most owners. The regulations should stop most people from flying their drone in their back garden or their local park.

But how strictly i s the l aw enforced? The CAA admits there have only ever been two convictions — one man was ordered to pay £300 for flying a drone over some rides at Alton Towers (while he was standing in the car park).

Another was fined £800 for flying a drone too close to a bridge, and near a nuclear submarine site (a separate offence).

BUT the first lawbreaker was caught only because he’d posted video footage on YouTube which had been shot from his drone, and the second was nabbed because he’d inadvertently filmed his car number plate as the drone took off. Neither was apprehended at the time of the offence.

Realistically, how many l ocal police officers are going to know the detail of the law if they see someone playing with a drone in his local park? So will the strict laws dampen demand? It’s unlikely.

‘This is the year that drones have moved into the mainstream,’ says Riccardo de Felice, owner of Marionville Models in Edinburgh, which has been selling flying toys for four decades.

‘That’s because you can buy a really good drone for a relatively small amount, with a good camera, that’s ready to fly as soon as you take it out of the box.’

For less than £50, you can buy a battery-powered drone with four motors that’ll do whatever you command it to.

For a little more money, your drone will hover perfectly still, then loop the loop, all the while beaming back broadcast- quality video of the landscape below.

You can see the appeal. These

machines are great fun to play with — if a little daunting at first.

Earlier this year, I got my hands on a top-of-the-range model being used by a farmer to scare birds away from his crops. (At least, that was his story — his main motivation appeared to be bossing about this extraordinary beast as it whizzed and buzzed its merry path through the sky, swooping down to the crops below.)

He let me have a go, and it was an amazing thrill: I felt like a master of the universe. The noise! The power!

Not all drones are as hefty and macho as that. The cheapest on the market, the Hubsan X4, costs less than £30 and fits in the palm of your hand, which means it is small and light enough for you to fly it indoors. Less giant spider, more an oversized (and playful) flea.

The little X4 can’t really cope in anything stronger than a breeze, but the more you spend, the sturdier your drone gets. And at the higher-end of the scale, the models come with GPS, the same satellite positioning system that your car’s satnav relies on.

It means the drone knows its precise position in space at every moment, and it automatically compensates for any change in windspeed by returning to the same spot if it’s blown sideways. As a result, it can hover and take photographs from the same place.

So will all the thousands of people who get a drone for Christmas really abide by the regulations?

Oliver Meakin, managing director of Maplin Direct, says: ‘We wouldn’t want any of our customers thinking that it’s a good idea to put a drone over Heathrow, because that’s clearly a very irresponsible thing to do.’

He says that Maplin makes sure all customers are made aware of the law. ‘But if they then choose to disregard the law, that is for them to decide.’

Of course, if you see a drone fitted with a camera hovering over your garden, there’s one drastic measure you could resort to: shoot it down.

Now, where did I put my shotgun . . .