Regulations
FAA Proposed Drone Rules: Market Opportunity Winners and Losers
On February 15, 2015, the commercial drone industry breathed a collective sigh of relief. The Federal Aviation Administration’s proposed new rules for small unmanned aircraft systems seemed, at first blush, somewhat practical. The FAA regulations will eventually allow commercial operations of drones that weigh under 55 pounds in U.S. airspace, without requiring operators to acquire … Read more
Commercial Drone Markets: 2014 Year in Review
Judging by the headlines, 2014 turned out to be the year for drones. I referenced in Tweets a total of 503 articles with the word ‘drones’ in the headline last year. A Google search brings up about 61.4 million results referring to ‘drones.’ Granted, that search includes references to military and hobby drones, but it … Read more
When Lockheed Meets GoPro: Ohio UAS Conference Wrap Up
Over the course of three days in August, I along with more than 670 participants at the Ohio UAS Conference 2014 in Dayton, OH, witnessed a large number of government and aerospace company attendees interested in taking drones into commercial markets. From the dozens of presentations and interactions I had with academics, military contractors, aircraft … Read more
Will Future FAA Rules Kill The Small Drones Market?
I just released the findings of my two-month survey studying the impact of FAA rules on small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) in the U.S. You can read the press release here. Among the many insights I got from the research, these two are the most significant: Unfavorable rules will disintegrate an already fragile market for … Read more
Do FAA Rules Hurt Your Small Drone Business?
Confused by the FAA’s small drone regulations? Feeling choked as a business? As you know, the FAA declares they govern *all* airspace, even the 400 feet above ground in which you fly everything from a paper airplane to a kite to a remote-controlled kit-built airplane and, yes, your multirotor drone. But FAA regulations are being … Read more
The Business of Drones: A Tale of Two Cities
The year was 1775. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the … Read more
The Yellow Brick Road of FAA Drone Regulations
This post provides a few helpful links to get you started on the journey of understanding Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations for UAS. Come back later and look for updates. There are three basic categories of UAS operations as defined by the FAA – LINK Public. This includes public entities such as federal and local governments, … Read more