3D Robotics

3689604012?profile=originalNo surprise, but good to have it confirmed by the Inspector General. From The Verge:

The Federal Aviation Administration likely won't be ready to let commercial drones take to the skies in September 2015, despite a recent law directing it to do so, a government audit has found. The report, released last week by the Department of Transportation's inspector general's office, found that the FAA is "significantly behind schedule" and that there are still "significant technological, regulatory, and management barriers" preventing the FAA from integrating drones into the national airspace.

Those barriers include: failing to create standards that would allow drones to detect and avoid other aircraft, as well as ensure reliable connections with their controllers; not yet determining regulatory requirements — such as certifications and air traffic procedures — for managing drones;  not ensuring that all issues with drones are reported and tracked; and generally remaining disorganized with regard to how it oversees drones. "Until FAA addresses these barriers," the report says, "[unmanned aerial vehicle] integration will continue to move at a slow pace, and safety risks will remain."

For its part, the FAA seems to accept the report, agreeing to all of the recommendations it makes in its conclusion. Those recommendations will have the agency publishing an annual report, beginning November 30th, detailing its work toward safe drone integration. They'll also have the agency setting up timelines and concrete goals for meeting many of the barriers that the DOT's inspector general identified. Even so, the report's conclusion isn't bright for the immediate future of drone use. "Until FAA is successful in establishing these standards and adhering to a comprehensive integration plan with other public and private stakeholders," the report reads, "it will remain unclear when, and if, FAA can meet its goals to safely integrate [unmanned aerial systems]."

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  • yup the US getting left behind again. as the world makes strides we get screwed by the government. They wonder why were slipping as the world leader. The only thing we lead in is Greed. Something to be proud of!

  • Can't say I didn't see that coming.  We should take up a collection to by our guys at the FAA new shoes.  All this feet dragging is bound to have wore them out!

  • If I take my quad & gimbal and attach it to a helium balloon is that illegal to take photos of real estate? I think I just solved my flight time issue...

  • Sometimes I really feel sorry for people living in the USA.
    America used to be the technological leader in the world but now ties itself up in so much bureaucracy that other countries just swoop in and take the market.

    Its one of the reasons why the American economy is in so much trouble and why countries like China are doing so well.

    Seriously, if America wants to stay an economic super power it has to cut out bureaucracy and start leading the world again instead of falling so far behind it effectively hobbles the domestic industries and forces them overseas.

  • Yep, you'll notice that everyone has to follow the laws the government writes, except the government that wrote them.  They write a bunch of fake laws and punish us for not following them.  They write real actual law for themselves and blowing it off is perfectly acceptable.

  • Can we start fining them. They don't meet a deadline thats a fine! no? Well they sure do think it's ok to fine us if we broke an unwritten rule! No wonder why the FAA doesn't have any friends!

  • Typical of my frequent dealings with all aspects of the FAA. If they give a due date 3 months out multiply it by 2.5

  • Let me see if I get this - the FAA thinks I can't safely fly my own drone with FPV in my own front yard even with all the safety features build into the latest APM software like loiter mode, return to home, and auto-landing and yet they are somehow going to come up with some kind of standard for big companies to safely send out fleets of fully autonomous drones - not likely.

  • Well until they get around to it I'm just going to keep flying my "model aircraft".

  • Summary:  A bureaucracy that can't get out of is own way.

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