Narrative:

While on short final for runway 31L at 1500 feet; a drone/uav was headed straight for our aircraft at a bearing of 135 at a high rate of closure and barely missed us. My first officer was the first to spot what he first thought was a collection [of] balloons emerging from the runway 31L center line. As the object got closer we saw that the object was some sort of diamond-shaped drone with a single pusher prop behind it. The drone passed less than 50 feet directly over the nose of our aircraft where we got a good look at it. We reported the encounter to tower. They tried; but could [not] successfully track the vehicle on radar. This drone incident was a great concern to me compared to the other encounters reported by aircraft this year for a variety of reasons. First; was the deliberate nature of the drone's operator in heading right for our aircraft down the center line of a major us airport runway in a difficult political climate.next; was the type of drone used. This drone was not your typical four-rotor toy as in previous encounters. The four to five foot fixed-wing; diamond-shape; stealthy police/military style fuselage; with short; blended; delta wings and down sloping winglets; had a belly mounted camera globe. This was closely related to an upgraded 'killer bee (or bat)' drone I once spotted during my time as an aviator in the military. Finally; I was concerned that ATC had no ability to track this larger uav and find those responsible. We need more visual binocular scanning from tower; rather than relying on airport radar which doesn't seem to pick up drones of the size and type I encountered. [Authorities] recommended to me that a pilot should hit the ident button on the transponder when you see a drone coming in close proximity to your aircraft. He said it helps ATC better pinpoint the location of these small vehicles.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-900 on short final to JFK airport had a near miss with a UAS similar in appearance to the Raytheon Killer Bee.

Narrative: While on short final for runway 31L at 1500 feet; a drone/UAV was headed straight for our aircraft at a bearing of 135 at a high rate of closure and barely missed us. My first officer was the first to spot what he first thought was a collection [of] balloons emerging from the runway 31L center line. As the object got closer we saw that the object was some sort of diamond-shaped drone with a single pusher prop behind it. The drone passed less than 50 feet directly over the nose of our aircraft where we got a good look at it. We reported the encounter to Tower. They tried; but could [not] successfully track the vehicle on radar. This drone incident was a great concern to me compared to the other encounters reported by aircraft this year for a variety of reasons. First; was the deliberate nature of the drone's operator in heading right for our aircraft down the center line of a major US airport runway in a difficult political climate.Next; was the type of drone used. This drone was not your typical four-rotor toy as in previous encounters. The four to five foot fixed-wing; diamond-shape; stealthy police/military style fuselage; with short; blended; delta wings and down sloping winglets; had a belly mounted camera globe. This was closely related to an upgraded 'Killer Bee (or Bat)' drone I once spotted during my time as an aviator in the military. Finally; I was concerned that ATC had no ability to track this larger UAV and find those responsible. We need more visual binocular scanning from tower; rather than relying on Airport Radar which doesn't seem to pick up drones of the size and type I encountered. [Authorities] recommended to me that a pilot should hit the ident button on the transponder when you see a drone coming in close proximity to your aircraft. He said it helps ATC better pinpoint the location of these small vehicles.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.