Category Archives: Regulatory Matters

NASA Success for Complex Drone Traffic Management Test at FAA Test Sites

San Francisco Bay Area reporters interview NASA researchers and observe the FAA test sites fly 24 drones to test air traffic management platform at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California

San Francisco Bay Area reporters interview NASA researchers and observe the FAA test sites fly 24 drones to test air traffic management platform at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California

In the first and largest demonstration of its kind, NASA and operators from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) test sites across the country flew 22 drones simultaneously to assess rural operations of NASA’s UAS traffic management (UTM) research platform. Continue reading →

Canada Working on UAS Regulations

national-flag-canada-lge2In 2015, Canada released a Notice of Proposed Amendment (“NPA”), proposing a new risk-based regulatory framework for small unmanned aircraft systems (“sUAS”) that weigh less than 55 pounds (25 kg) and are operated within visual line-of-sight (“VLOS”). Although Canada and the U.S. have engaged to coordinate UAS activities and committed to establishing a mechanism to share experiences to align regulatory approaches (to the extent practical), the NPA sets forth a more complex framework for sUAS operations at various risk levels and may offer more flexibility to commercial users.  The final rules are expected to be released this year.

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Calls for Government Action Follow Heathrow UAV Incident

HeathrowA lack of regulation has been blamed for a drone hitting a British Airways passenger jet, as it emerged that police have failed to investigate 40 near-misses in the past year. Calls for action to mitigate the threat to passenger aircraft from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) came from Europe’s main regional airline trade group and others following an April 17 incident at London Heathrow Airport.

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NASA Preparing for Fourth Series of Flight Tests

ikhana_bankingNASA and its partners, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., Honeywell International and the RTCA Special Committee (SC)-228, are validating and advancing technologies that will assist the Federal Aviation Administration as they develop the regulations to allow integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS).

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AUVSI Study of FAA Exemptions Published

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has released an interactive analysis that finds 38 types of business operations have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly unmanned aircraft systems commercially in the National Airspace System (NAS). According to the report that analyzed more than 3,000 FAA exemptions, aerial photography received the most, followed by real estate and aerial inspection. The report also finds that exemptions have been approved in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

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