Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Manuel Huerta on Thursday announced partnerships with three companies, including cable news provider CNN [TWX], to conduct research on the possible expansion of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations in the United States beyond limits proposed in an ongoing rulemaking effort begun in February.
Under the Pathfinder Program, the FAA will focus on three areas to explore the next steps in small UAS operations beyond the operations proposed in the draft rule. These areas include visual line-of-sight operations in urban areas, extended visual line-of-sight operations in rural areas, and beyond visual line-of-sight operations in rural and isolated areas.
For the urban area research, the FAA has an agreement with CNN to look at how UAS might be safely used for newsgathering in populated areas. For extended visual line-of-site operations, the agency is partnering with UAS manufacturer PrecisionHawk, which will survey crops in rural areas with unmanned aircraft. Rail freight transporter BNSF Railway will explore command-and-control challenges of using UAS to inspect rail system infrastructure in the beyond visual line-of-sight in rural and isolated focus area.
“We anticipate receiving valuable data from each of these trials that could result in FAA-approved operations in the next few years,” Huerta said in a speech at the annual Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in Atlanta. “They will also give insight into how unmanned aircraft can be used to transform the way certain industries do business, whether that means making sure trains run on time, checking on the health of crops, or reporting on a natural disaster.”
In February the FAA issued a proposed rule to allow for the routine operation of small UAS in the U.S. aviation system, albeit with restrictions, including only daylight and visual-line-of-sight flying. The proposed rule defines small UAS as weighing less than 55 pounds and also addresses height restrictions, operator certification, other operational limits that include no flying near airports, and aircraft registration and marking.
The public comment period on the rule closed last month after nearly 4,500 responses, including one from the federal Small Business Administration that says the restrictions to visual line-of-sight may be unnecessary given advances in technology that address safety issues if there is loss of control of an aircraft (Defense Daily, April, 24). AUVSI has also commented that the rule permit beyond line-of-sight and nighttime operations.
The FAA hasn’t said when it expects to complete review of all the comments and issue the final rule. Huerta said it “takes time, so we’re actively looking for other ways to expand the use of unmanned aircraft in the meantime.”
The National Association of Realtors applauded the FAA’s latest announcement. Chris Polychron, the association’s president, said the new FAA study “could lead to important benefits in the real estate industry, particularly for agents who wish to market rural and large commercial properties.”
In addition to the new partnerships for expanding small UAS operations, the FAA has partnered with states and organizations in different parts of the country to operate six national test sites to gather data to help integrate UAS operations into the national airspace.
The FAA and CNN have been working together through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) and the agency and PrecisionHawk have just entered into such an agreement. BNSF has a draft CRADA that is nearly complete.