On January 14, the Federal Aviation Administration approved the first fully automated commercial drone flights by granting Massachusetts-based American Robotics, Inc. permission to operate drones without hands-on piloting and...more
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been granting drone flight waivers for certain restricted flights to help during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the FAA says that it is unlikely the waivers will extend beyond current...more
One of the great innovations of the Part 107 regulations for unmanned aircraft was the ability to obtain a waiver from many of its more restrictive requirements. The Part 107 waiver process allows operators the flexibility to...more
State Farm has become the very first company in the United States to receive a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for drone operations over people and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). The waiver is...more
Avitas Systems, a General Electric (GE) venture, received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly a large unmanned aerial system (UAS or drone) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator in Loving...more
The commercial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or drones) market is taking off in the United States and around the world. Recent innovations have transformed what used to be considered toys into powerful tools that provide...more
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced new partners in its Low Altitude and Notification Capability (LAANC) initiative. ...more
For the first time in the U.S., a commercial drone equipped with a parachute safety system was permitted to fly over people during a football game in North Dakota last week....more
State Farm has been granted a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver to use drones, under the Small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Rule (or Part 107), to assess damages in communities affected by Hurricane Florence....more
Last week, on the two-year anniversary of the small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) rule (or Part 107), a report was released by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) stating that the Federal...more
The use of small unmanned aircraft systems (“sUAS” and commonly referred to as drones) has exploded over the past few years, with associated technology advancing rapidly. In part, this has been the result of the Federal...more
A typical claim for a homeowner will involve some type of damage to the property, which, in turn, prompts the insurer to perform an inspection of the insured property, so as to assess the cause and extent of the alleged...more
Praxis Aerospace Concepts International (PACI) announced this week that it has been granted a Part 107 waiver under the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) regulations to fly drones...more
Last Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a “refresher” on its Part 107 rule for small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or drones) in a “Fact Sheet” available. The Fact Sheet outlines all the basics of...more
President Trump's administration has announced the creation of a new Integration Pilot Program. According to the president, “Our nation will move faster, fly higher, and soar proudly toward the next great chapter of American...more
A Columbus, Ohio based company, CivitasNow, has just become the second company ever (CNN was the first) to be granted a Part 107 waiver to fly drones over people by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). ...more
Drones are the future of transportation and information technology. Recent innovations have transformed what used to be considered toys into powerful tools that provide substantial safety and efficiency benefits to commercial...more
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Part 107 waiver process for the operation of unmanned aerial systems (UAS or drones) in certain restricted airspace or beyond the limitations of the Part 107 UAS regulations, was...more
About ten years ago, I visited a college friend in Simi Valley, California. He graduated Purdue with an Aeronautical Engineering degree and had left Indiana to work for a company developing unmanned aircraft for the military....more
Back in August 2016, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced its final small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) rule (or Part 107) FAA administrator, Michael Huerta said, “Our focus is to make this as streamlined...more
The biggest news of 2016 for the commercial drone market was surely the finalization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Part 107 regulations. And even better news for the commercial drone market was that the Part...more
At a recent Commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, a Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) attorney, Dean Griffiths, explained that the top three requests for Part 107 commercial drone...more
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a short press release and guidance on Part 107 waivers and airspace authorizations for commercial drones. Since the final drone operations rule was issued in August 2016, the...more