Clearer skies are ahead for American businesses betting on drones.
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New rules by the FAA go into effect today, clarifying what is acceptable commercial usage of small unmanned aerial vehicles. Operators had to apply for an FAA waiver and pay several thousand dollars.
According to Marketplace, the test would-be pilots must take is 60 multiple choice questions, and 3,300 people have signed up to take it.
“We have a lot of students who got their private pilot license in the late 70s or 80s, and they’re coming back and studying this stuff for a second time”, said Alan Perlman, founder of Drone Pilot Ground School, an online prep course for the new FAA exam.
According to the new rules, such drones can be used in fields like construction, surveying, firefighting, agriculture, search and rescue, conservation, film and video production, academic research, and countless other fields.
Many believe the new commercial rules will lead to a boom in drone sales and jobs that could boost the economy. “We’re introducing a brand new rule”, Earl Lawrence, director of the FAA’s drone integration office, said during a congressional briefing last week.
A number of businesses, such as e-commerce giant Amazon, have announced plans for drone deliveries, but many have outsourced delivery operations to other countries due to a lack of proper regulation in their home market, Wild explained.
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New Zealand boasted the most forward-thinking aviation regulations in the world, Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeny said in a statement. The problem, however, is that New Zealand is a sparsely populated country, making drone delivery much easier than it would be in more urbanized environs in the United States.
