“We hope that the regulation of the Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] enters into force sometime in 2015.” This is, in the words of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, the main obstacle to his new project, complete delivery service through drones , a reality. The U.S. Congress gave the FAA mandated to adopt rules flying drones for civilian use by the end of 2015. In November this year, the agency published its first roadmap, a compendium of general observations, but with little clear concretions on the rules end. Preserving privacy in full hangover spy on practices of the Government of the United States, is one of the most complex issues facing the FAA.
Over 74 pages, the plan addresses the FAA since the unification of design and certification of drones until the licenses of pilots and air traffic controllers responsible for monitoring flight paths to drones . In addition to privacy concerns, for the federal agency, one of the main problems is to ensure that the airspace is congested and does not interfere with the routes of the traditional.
Since 1990, when the agency began to authorize the first unmanned flight, 80 security agencies in addition to educational institutions, environmental specialists and pilot testers, have received permission from the FAA to conduct raids and always specific cases, such operations to mitigate forest fires, combating natural disasters, search and rescue, border control or military training, according to the explanations offered by the head of the FAA, Michael Huerta, in presenting his report .
Out of those exceptional cases, drones can not fly in areas with high population density, just what Bezos aims. Although Amazon freighters would fly at such low altitudes that do not interfere with other paths of commercial flights, the FAA has not yet established concrete measures to ensure the safety rules about it. The first requirement is self-imposed the federal agency is determined before the end of year six locations in the country to perform all necessary to test the general information collected on its roadmap and to begin realizing the final rule tests .
FAA expects, however, and according to his report, not having to “create a new regulation on the use of airspace or modify existing”, in order to be able to guarantee flight drone with the same safety and efficiency parameters that ordinary with similar rules.
urgency of the mission of the FAA is not simply determined by the mandate of Congress, that indeed, he has set a limit 2015, but the financial investment at stake. In the next five years it is estimated that could fly over the skies of about 7,500 U.S. small drones. Only in 2013, the industry has invested 6,600 million in developing technology related to the remotely piloted aircraft and, according to Teal Group, that number will increase to 11,400 million in 2022.
“Innovation is what makes the U.S. more prosperous and as we enter the second century of aviation, we see how we are transforming the space, taking advantage of technological advances to maintain our leadership,” acknowledged Huerta.
Before allowing such devices to share the airspace with ordinary aircraft, together with the unification of the technology for the manufacture of devices, from the definition of the airspace to be used by drones , in the field of training and licensing of pilots, airworthiness parameters or control of communications and shipping, type and capacity of information that will be allowed, the main obstacle faced by the FAA is the privacy of citizens. “You need to understand the implications on privacy, security and the environment involve such operations and work with departments and agencies to actively coordinate and incorporate these considerations in the regulatory structure,” the FAA in its report.
document, the agency acknowledges that its authority to establish such limits invalidate state or local legislation on the matter, but requests these governments to “regulate the activity limitations that may make the drones in its territory “.
The FAA expects to have regulations on the use of drones in 2015, Bezos as expected, but for now, their first deadlines are not being met. Less than a month before the deadline that the agency itself was granted to present the six places in which to test their roadmap and the FAA has not yet given any track meets.
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