Thursday, December 11, 2014

Federal Aviation Administration Faces Fresh Flak for Drone Policy: U.S. Regulators Approves Another Four Companies to Use Drones for Industrial Operations

The Wall Street Journal 
By Jack Nicas
Updated Dec. 10, 2014 1:26 p.m. ET


The lack of a comprehensive policy for drone use in the U.S. is endangering the safety of air transportation while also setting U.S. businesses behind their peers abroad, lawmakers, government watchdogs and industry officials said at a congressional hearing.

The comments on Wednesday came as the Federal Aviation Administration made its latest incremental move to open the skies to commercial use of drones, approving four companies to use the devices to create maps and collect data on construction sites. The decision brings the number of approved commercial-drone operators in the U.S. to just 13—compared with thousands in Europe.

“I can’t help but wonder: If the Germans, French and Canadians can do some of these things today, why can’t we also be doing this?” said U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R., N.J.) at a hearing Wednesday on U.S. drone regulations. “Are they smarter than us? I don’t think so.”

The hearing underscored frustration over the pace of the FAA’s efforts to develop new drone rules, as well as the many technological, regulatory and safety challenges that remain to integrate the devices into U.S. skies. Currently the agency bans the use of drones by companies other than the 13 it has granted exceptions, though many businesses and entrepreneurs are using them without authorization.

Peggy Gilligan, the FAA’s associate administrator for aviation safety, defended the agency’s progress, saying regulators are taking a gradual, cautious approach because authorizing widespread drone flights in the U.S.—which has the world’s most crowded airspace—carries extreme safety risks.

Other experts at the hearing reinforced the need for caution. Dr. Nicholas Roy, a robotics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped develop Google Inc. ’s delivery-drone prototypes, said small consumer drones aren’t yet reliable and engineers are struggling to develop many important technologies, such as features that enable the devices to detect and avoid obstacles. But, he added, FAA restrictions on test flights are complicating the development of such technologies.

Lee Moak, head of the Air Line Pilots Association, brought a hand-held four-rotor drone to the congressional hearing and showed pictures of planes that were struck by birds or drones. He urged regulators and lawmakers not to allow industry pressures to rush drone regulations. “Standards and technologies must be in place to ensure the same high level of safety before an [unmanned aircraft] can be permitted to occupy the same airspace as planes,” he said.

Gerald Dillingham, director of aviation issues at the Government Accountability Office, said the FAA is behind schedule on eight of 17 drone-related mandates Congress gave the agency in 2012. Notably, he said, integrating drones into U.S. airspace—mandated to occur by September 2015—likely won’t occur until 2017 or later.

That delay “could contribute to [drones] continuing to operate unsafely and illegally and lead to additional enforcement activities for FAA’s scarce resources,” he said. Plus, without rules for commercial drones, “U.S. businesses may continue to take their testing and research-and-development activities outside of the U.S.”

Rep. Blake Farenthold, (R., Texas), who said he had “a quadcopter on my Christmas list,” asked Mr. Dillingham how the FAA could expedite its drone regulations. In response, Mr. Dillingham said, “This is a situation that, although we’ve studied it, we don’t have an answer for.”

Rep. Farenthold then asked Mr. Dillingham how the FAA could better enforce its effective ban on commercial-drone use in the U.S., a policy that U.S. entrepreneurs are widely violating. “It’s going to be a difficult, if not impossible task because the FAA already has so many calls on their resources,” Mr. Dillingham said.

The FAA has written draft rules on commercial drones, but they are under review and aren’t expected to be implemented soon. Meanwhile, the agency is issuing case-by-case approvals for companies to use drones for their businesses. Earlier this year, the agency approved seven companies to use drones for filmmaking. The agency earlier approved two commercial-drone operations in northern Alaska.

On Wednesday, the FAA approved four more companies because their proposed drone operations “do not pose a threat to national airspace users or national security.”

FAA issued those exemptions to Trimble Navigation Ltd. and VDOS Global LLC, which make or operate unmanned aircraft, and Clayco Inc. and Woolpert Inc., two architectural and engineering firms. The companies plan to use drones to make maps, monitor construction sites and inspect oil flare stacks, the agency said.

Source:  http://www.wsj.com

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