Recently, Federal Aviation Administrator (FAA), Michael Huerta, announced the establishment of a broad-based drone advisory committee.  The creation of this committee stems from the successful stakeholder-based unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) registration task force and the MicroUAS aviation rulemaking committee.  However, unlike other committees, this advisory committee is intended to be “long-lasting” according to the FAA. The advisory committee will “identify and prioritize integration challenges and improvements and create broad support for an overall integration strategy.” CEO of the Intel Corporation, Brian Krzanich, will chair the committee.

Additionally, Huerta announced that the FAA will soon permit students to operate UAS for educational and research purposes. This means that schools will no longer need to apply with the Section 333 exemption and faculty will be able to use drones as well to help students with their courses. Huerta said, “Schools and universities are incubators for tomorrow’s great ideas, and we think this is going to be a significant shot in the arm for innovation.”

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