Registration Number Assigned To An Individual Would Be Used On All Aircraft Owned By That Person Or Company

The FAA has posted the recommendations of its UAS Registration Task Force on its website, and the agency is now digesting the document as it moves towards creating a final rule for registration of the aircraft.

In a conference call with the media, task force co-chairs Earl Lawrence of the FAA and Dave Vos of Google X said that the recommendations are just that. They will be added to the more than 4,500 public comments received to date by the agency and other data for crafting the final rule. No timeline has been set for issuing a final rule on UAV registration.

The task force has recommended requiring UAV owners to provide their name and physical address to the agency. The owner would then be issued a unique registration number ... not an "N" number ... that could be used on every aircraft owned by that individual. Optional information collected would be the owner's telephone number, mailing address, and serial number of the aircraft. The task force had recommended that all UAVs weighing 250 grams, or about 0.55 pounds, be registered with the FAA, which would own the database.

Lawrence said that a collecting a serial number was not made mandatory for several reasons. Principally, many hobbyists who build their own aircraft already put their names and addresses on the aircraft, and home-built unmanned aircraft do not have serial numbers. He added that there is no universal serial numbering system among manufacturers, making the information less useful in tracking an owner.

Registration would not be required for aircraft that are designed to be flown only indoors.

Lawrence said that the recommendations, if adopted, would mean the industry would not be constrained by rules that are technology-specific. The recommendations are generic rules that would not stifle future growth of the industry.  But he said that the task force believes that the recommendations should be adopted by the FAA as a whole, and that the agency not implement only portions of what has been put forth by the panel.

He stressed that all members of the task force, from toy manufacturers to airlines, agreed to the recommendations. There was no dissention among the diverse groups at the table, he said.

Lawrence also said that those who have already registered their UAVs under the existing system with Section 333 exemptions would not be required to re-register their aircraft, though it would be an option. The registrations rules would not affect the requirement to obtain a Section 333 exemption for the commercial operation of unmanned aircraft.

In a statement issued Saturday, FAA administrator Michael Huerta said "At the direction of the Secretary, the FAA announced the formation of a task force to develop a process for owners of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to register their aircraft. This group of experts embraced the challenge with the energy and creativity we expected and delivered its report to me today as scheduled.  We thank them for their excellent and expeditious work.  I will work with my team at the FAA to review their recommendations, as well as public comments we received, as we present the recommendations to Secretary Foxx. We will work quickly and flexibly to move toward the next steps for registration."

FMI: Task Force Recommendations