During a press conference this afternoon, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the creation of a task force to develop recommendations for a registration process for drones that operate in U.S. airspace . By 20 November, the task force will decide which drones will have to be registered and which drones will be exempt, whether you have to register drones that you already own, and how to deal with drones that you build yourself, among other things. The idea is that some sort of system will be in place by mid-December to deal with the million or so new drones that consumers will be getting over the holidays. Here are the most informative bits from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s press release; WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta today announced the creation of a task force to develop recommendations for a registration process for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The task force will be composed of 25 to 30 diverse representatives from the UAS and manned aviation industries, the federal government, and other stakeholders. The group will advise the Department on which aircraft should be exempt from registration due to a low safety risk, including toys and certain other small UAS. The task force also will explore options for a streamlined system that would make registration less burdensome for commercial UAS operators […]
