Drones

I’m contemplating taking a hammer to my toy quadcopter and smashing it to pieces after the FAA on Monday announced new rules requiring most drone owners to register their UAVs in a national database and pay a $5 fee every three years. It’s not that I disagree with the registration requirement. I’m fine with the […]

With one of the busiest shopping weekends behind us and an even busier gift giving season to come, Amazon has updated its progress on Prime Air, a proposed drone delivery system from the online retailer giant. First unveiled in 2013, Amazon hasn’t backed off its not-so-science-fiction dream of making Prime Air a reality. The delivery […]

A task force consisting of a variety of small unmanned aircraft system stakeholders including manufacturers, sales outlets, video camera manufacturers, and manned and unmanned aircraft industry organizations, have produced recommendations for a registration process for sUAS. If implemented, the registration process would cover both commercial operators and those flying sUAS as a hobby. The recommendations […]

While the FAA has been lagging in its effort to implement safety rules governing drone operations, the DOT and FAA have now come together to create a registration process for unmanned aircraft systems. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced yesterday that a new task force will develop recommendations for the […]

Despite the lack of finalized rules governing the operation of unmanned aircraft systems, the FAA is getting serious about managing the operations of UAS. The agency has proposed a fine of $1.9 million to a company in Chicago called SkyPan International, Inc. The FAA alleges that, between March 21, 2012, and December 15, 2014, the […]

As industry watchers warn that as many as a million recreational drones will be sold this holiday season, lawmakers in Washington criticized FAA officials at a hearing on Wednesday for missing a deadline to issue new safety regulations to deal with the potential hazard they pose for air traffic. The FAA missed a deadline last […]

As the use of drones is increasing in a wide variety of applications and the FAA is finalizing the operational requirements for unmanned aircraft, there will be a growing need for training for the pilots of these systems. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (GA-ASI) is about to break ground on a new facility in Grand […]

“Swarm Man” takes to the sky — er, several feet off the ground — in a DIY super drone that sounds like an army of bees. The homebuilt flying machine is equipped with 54 counter-rotating propellers fastened in a hexagonal pattern, with a chair in the center. It’s also rigged with a polycarbonate dome, which […]

As the FAA gets serious about stemming the threat of UAVs mixing in airspace with general aviation and airline traffic, the agency has appointed two new executives to head its UAS Integration Office. Retired U.S. Air Force major general Marke “Hoot” Gibson has been tapped to become the senior advisor on UAS integration, reporting to […]

So far it’s unconfirmed, but the FAA is taking seriously a report that a Piper twin was involved in a midair collision with a UAV over northern Illinois on August 27. Maybe we should be calling it a UFO, since the FAA’s incident report refers to a collision between the Piper Apache and an “unidentified […]