Legalization of UAVs in the USA: FAA proposal

A ban on the use of multicopter and drones for commercial purposes can be lifted. Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (Federal Aviation Administration) proposed a plan for the legal settlement of UAV operations, which so far exist in a legal vacuum. True, on the basis of the proposed principles, we are unlikely to see the work of delivery services by the copters, as Amazon and Google dream.

So, the FAA offers the following flight rules.

• UAVs can only fly in the daytime and in direct line of sight of the operator.
• Operator age - at least 17 years; he must pass an aeronautical knowledge test and obtain an FAA UAS operator certificate.
• Machine weight: not more than 25 kg, maximum flight altitude: 150 m, maximum speed: 160 km / h. It is forbidden to fly over people.
• UAVs are not allowed to carry any “objects for dropping” - this item directly contradicts Amazon’s plan for the delivery of goods.

The FAA proposal is now open for discussion and subject to adjustment for 60 days. It is assumed that the rules will come into force no earlier than 2016.
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It should be noted that many representatives of the industry are especially depressed by the rule that the UAV must necessarily be in the direct view of the operator. This prevents long-distance flights and limits the use of drones with remote cameras in search operations.

At the same time, there is some good news. The FAA officially agreed that additional “more flexible” rules could be developed for “microdrones” weighing less than 2 kg. Including there is the possibility of creating special “innovation zones” for experiments with copters.

So Amazon and Google still have hope of creating an unmanned delivery service, but only for very small light goods. Pizzerias can also deliver pizza drones, but only small and medium pizzas.

One more thing should be noted. New rules will not affect the current rules for the use of Copters by amateurs.

PS Representatives of the FAA acknowledged that the strange time of publication of the press release (on Sunday morning) is connected with the Friday information leakage - the results of the internal FAA investigation , which indicate the great potential benefit of the UAV for the national economy, are published on the Internet.