FAA proposes opening skies to commercial drones
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Transportation proposed Sunday new regulations that remove many of the barriers to commercial use of drones for applications like photography and surveying, but they don't permit the kind of automated drone use that companies like Amazon.com are eyeing for package delivery.
The proposed regulations would allow companies to fly drones up to 500 feet at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour during daylight hours. The drone must be flown by a licensed drone operator -- a newly created certification -- and kept within visual line-of-sight at all times. Drones would always have to give way to other air traffic and could not fly over people except those involved in its flight.
"It's an exciting day for aviation and the future of unmanned aircraft in the U.S.," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a conference call with reporters.
