A drone flies over the city center during a NASA demonstration on testing of its unmanned aerial vehicle (UTM) traffic management platform in Reno, Nevada, USA, on May 21, 2019. REUTERS / Bob Strong
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the final rules announced in December came into force on Wednesday, allowing small drones to fly over people and at night, a significant step towards their eventual use for shipments. widespread commercial.
The effective date was delayed by approximately one month during the change of administration. The FAA said its expected rules for drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, will address safety concerns by requiring remote identification technology in most cases to allow their identification from the ground.
Previously, small drone operations on people were limited to operations on people directly involved in the operation, located under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle, unless the operators had obtained a waiver from the FAA.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that the rules “are an important first step in safely managing the growing use of drones in our airspace, although more work is being done on the journey to to the full integration “of drones.
Drone manufacturers have 18 months to start producing drones with remote identification and operators will have an additional year to provide it.
Companies have been competing to create drone fleets to speed up deliveries. In December, the United States had more than 1.7 million drone records and 203,000 FAA-certified remote pilots.
For night operations, the FAA said drones must be equipped with anti-collision lights. The final rules allow operations on moving vehicles in some circumstances.
The new rules eliminate the requirements for drones to be connected to the Internet to transmit location data, but they do require the issuance of remote identification messages by radio frequency transmission.
One change, as the rules were first proposed in 2019, requires that small drones not have exposed rotating parts that would tear human skin.
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