UAV

FAA to ramp up drone education, regulation

According to Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, regulations are in place to prevent drones from interfering with large aircraft — but education about drone safety and regulation enforcement needs to be improved in order to actually keep airways safe.

“That is certainly a serious concern and it is something that I am concerned about,” Huerta told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “That’s why we are very focused on education. That’s why we’re also focused on enforcement. We’ve enforced hundreds of these cases where we have seen someone operating one of these things carelessly and recklessly and posing the danger to aircraft, and that can’t happen.”

Since drones have entered the commercial market, the FAA reports pilots have seen up to 25 cases per month of drones flying above the regulated limit of 400 feet, with some flying as high as 2,000 feet in the air. Huerta says the FAA is working to educate people about the dangers of flying drones that high, since enforcement of the small, unmanned aerial vehicles can be difficult. www.suasnews.com

Trimble, VDOS, Clayco and Woolpert permitted to fly drones

FAA has rolled out permissions for four companies to commercial operate UAVs/ drones in the US. The permits were granted to Trimble Navigation Limited, VDOS Global LLC, Clayco Inc. and Woolpert Inc., which received two permits. These permissions allow the operators to fly the drones under 55 pounds (25 Kilograms) to fly under the 100 feet (30 meter) with in the line of site of the operator.

Designed to carry astronauts to destinations in deep space, including an asteroid and Mars, Orion was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on December 5, a day after the initial launch was postponed. As it returned from its mission and prepared for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean 4.5 hours after takeoff, the GPS/inertialguided Ikhana was on hand to capture the historic moment on video.

FAA lets Ohio company operate drones for surveying

Southwestern Ohio company will be allowed to fly drones in U.S. airspace for the purpose of aerial surveys. The Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) granted Woolpert Inc. permission to fly the unoccupied aircraft systems in commercial operations. Woolpert is an engineering, architecture and geospatial firm based in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek. It was among four companies that received regulatory exemptions this week. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx found that the drones do not need an FAA-issued certificate of airworthiness to conduct the work because they don’t pose a threat to national airspace users or to national security