Last week, the FAA finalized its rules for routine commercial use of small unmanned aircraft systems (drones). The new rules govern the operation and certification of small drones weighing less than 55 pounds for non-hobby and non-recreational purposes. The rules will permit UAS operations for applications such as the delivery of consumer goods, inspections of cell phone towers, bridges, pipelines, electric lines, and oil rigs, crop monitoring, search and rescue missions, research and development, and aerial photography, to name a few. The rules will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. For more information, please see Keller and Heckman’s Consumer Protection Connection blog post on this topic or contact Greg Kunkle (kunkle@khlaw.com; 202.434.4178).
