No New Announcements Made During The Presentation

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta addressed the Consumer Electronics Forum in Las Vegas, NV Friday afternoon, outlining the work that has been done on integration of UAVs into the national airspace, but offering nothing new in his remarks.

Huerta said that with all of the advances in drone technology over the past year, the only sure thing is that things are going to get more complicated, not less. He said that the FAA's forecasts indicate that there could be as many as seven million drones sold in the United States by 2020. And the pace of change is "breathtaking," and looks to the industry to be partners in developing regulations.

"We know that as regulators, we can't dictate from above," Huerta said. "We have to work in close collaboration and partnership with industry, and those who fly unmanned aircraft, both for recreation and for commercial purposes.

"So instead of telling the drone operators what they can and can't do, we're helping them to do what they want to do, while ensuring that they operate safely."

Huerta said that more than 30,000 people have started the remote pilot application process that would allow them to obtain waivers to operate drones at night, beyond visual line of sight, and in controlled airspace under certain conditions. About 16,000 have taken the remote pilot knowledge exam with about a 90 percent pass rate.

"The next step in this process is to allow drones to be flown over people under certain circumstances," he said.

But he said that raises safety questions because of the risk of injury should there be a failure, and it raises security issues. Crafting a way to determine which drones are being flown legitimately, and which are being operated by "bad actors", is taking time, and other issues have been raised during meetings with industry stakeholders, he said. "But I can give you my steadfast commitment that we are doing all that we can to advance this effort. And we will be looking to our industry partners to work with us to develop more ingenious ways to ensure that drones are able to fly over people without sacrificing safety or security."

Huerta said that rules allowing BVLOS flight are "further down the road."

The administrator said that the Drone Advisory Committee (DAC) is working with the FAA on two key questions. "First, what are the highest priority unmanned aircrat operations, and how can the industry gain access to the airspace to conduct these operations."

Huerta said that because of the number of drones being introduced in the U.S., CES would continue to be a valuable forum for getting information out to the drone community, and that input from drone operators would continue to be instrumental in the development of new regulations going forward.

(Image from Facebook Live video)

FMI: www.faa.gov