Last Friday, the US House of Representatives passed the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 by a vote of 223 to 196. The bill includes important passages about integrating unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System (civil airspace).
The US Senate passed their version of an FAA Reauthorization Bill some months ago (also with UAS references) and of course there are differences between both versions. Now, under US law, a small group of representatives from both the House and Senate will meet as a “Conference Committee” to work out the differences and, hopefully, produce an FAA Reauthorization Bill acceptable for both sides. This can then be passed in both houses with intent to send the final Bill to the President for signature and to become law.
John Walker of The Padina Group, told UAS VISION: “This FAA Reauthorization Bill can be seen as a sign of true progress and holds the potential of including provisions for UAS airspace access development. I’m hopeful there’s enough common ground for House and Senate leaders to come up with a compromise bill that will be acceptable for both sides so that the final bill can be completed and signed into law. I believe this will happen in the very near future.”
In detail, the Bill proposes to:
- Set a deadline of 30 September 2015 for the integration of commercial UAS into the NAS
- Require a comprehensive plan for integration into the NAS within nine months, after consulting with the unmanned aircraft systems industry
- Require the FAA to simplify its application process for law enforcement and public safety agencies within three months. Once the application process is simplified, law enforcement and public safety agencies will be able to operate UAS weighing less than 4.4 pounds, within the line-of- sight of the operator, less than 400 feet in the air, during daylight hours, within Class G airspace, and outside five miles from any airport.
- Create four UAS test sites
- Define small unmanned aircraft as weighing less than 55 pounds
- Require annual reports to Congress on UAS activities
- Start the official rule-making process within two and a half years.