A curious, if not confusing, new bill authored by a bipartisan mix of Senators pretty much wants to do away with Federal preemption and give state and local governments the power to regulate drones flying under 200 feet AGL...
The chaos potential, of course, is huge and industry reaction has been largely negative. Senators Tom Cotton, Dianne Feinstein, Mike Lee and Richard Blumenthal have introduced the Drone Federalism Act. The Senators errantly insist that in the timeframe between September 2015 to September 2016, nearly 1,500 drone incidents were reported. Mind you, such reports have previously been picked apart elsewhere and by a number of authorities. FAI has issued a call for bids for the first FAI World Drone Racing Championships, to be held in late 2017 or early 2018. Billed as the #1 Sport Series of the New Generation, the FAI World Drone Racing Championships will harness the international excitement and enthusiasm around drones in a four day world championships competition. It will see the world’s best Drone Racers compete for the most prestigious title in the sport – FAI World Champion. AeroVironment’s Wasp AE small UAS has been selected by the Australian Defence Force, for their $101 Million
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program. Weighing just under three pounds, the Wasp AE has a flight time up to 50 minutes, and can operate at a range of up to five kilometers. Using its pan-tilt-zoom Mantis i22 AE gimbaled payload, the UAS, which is launched by hand, and can land on the ground, or in fresh or salt water, delivers “live, streaming color and infrared video.” All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne-Unmanned!!!
Airborne-Unmanned 06.06.17 is chock full of info in this Weekly News Episode, Tuesday, June 6th, 2017... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Brianne Cross, Christopher Odom, and Laura Hutson, and is supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalist Tom Patton, this episode covers:
- BiPartisan Senators Propose Extensive Drone Regs
- Bidding opens for the 1st FAI World Drone Racing Championships
- AeroVironment’s Wasp AE Small UAS Selected For Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program
- Audi To Become First Company To Test Driverless Vehicles In New York
- Drone USA receives order for Shadow Police UAS from Connecticut police department
- Counter UAS Task Force Established in North Dakota
- Airborne-Unmanned -- Help Wanted
Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again next week for the next edition of "Airborne-Unmanned" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, next week!
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ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.10.25): Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO]
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