The commercial UAS industry in the U.S. took a giant leap forward yesterday, as DOT and FAA released its Final Rule for the Operation and Certification of Small UAS (Part 107). At 624 pages long, there is certainly a lot to digest and we will be following up with more analysis of Part 107 throughout this week and next. For the time being, we wanted to provide you with a high-level overview of Part 107…

The commercial drone industry continues to face regulatory challenges as companies strive to use drones to make their operations safer and more efficient. In a positive development this week, there is now hope that Congress may ease some of these regulatory challenges for natural gas and oil pipelines and other critical infrastructure owners and operators. The UAVs for Energy Infrastructure Act (S.2684), sponsored by Senator Jim Inhofe and introduced on March 15, 2016, would allow…

Energy companies that operate critical infrastructure face regulatory challenges on a daily basis as they strive to provide effective and efficient service safely. Congress may make some of these regulatory challenges less burdensome by lifting restrictions on the use of drones to monitor their assets. UAVs for Energy Infrastructure Act (S.2684), sponsored by Senator Jim Inhofe and introduced on March 15, 2016, would enable critical infrastructure operators to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or so-called…

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that nearly 800,000 small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, will be sold this holiday season, and expects sales of an additional 1.9 million UAS to hobbyist and recreational users in 2016. Over the past year we have witnessed a surge in news events involving careless operators misusing drones, including crashes at stadium sporting events and hundreds of incidents involving close-encounters between UAS and manned aircraft. In response to…

As previously reported here and here, a month ago on October 19, 2015, the Department of Transportation (DOT) created a registration task force (RTF) charged with making recommendations to the FAA on what mandatory registration of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), including those used for recreational or hobby use, should look like. Today, the FAA publicly released the RTF’s much-anticipated final recommendations report. Here are the key highlights from the RTF’s report to…

On April 8, 2015, the DGAC issued a new mandatory circular CO AV-23/10 R2 that “establishes the requirements to operate RPAS” to be more in line with the regulatory regimes of other countries that have developed such regulations. Read More: The Mexican Civil Aviation Authority Has Issued a New Mandatory Circular for all Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Operations…

The Hogan Lovells Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Group recently held a workshop in Silicon Valley on the regulatory, business, and financial hurdles to operating unmanned aircraft systems. The event was of particular interest given the Federal Aviation Administration’s issuance of its notice of proposed rulemaking for small UAS operations on February 15 and the White House’s release on the same day of a presidential memorandum promoting economic competitiveness while safeguarding privacy, civil rights, and civil…