The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is accelerating its review of industry requests to fly small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the nation’s airspace, an FAA official said April 28.The number of applications approved under Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 was initially just a handful but has mushroomed to almost 250 since September, said Robert Pappas, special rules coordinator for the FAA’s UAS Integration Office.“A little more than a month ago, we reviewed the lessons…