Citing safety concerns and privacy issues, the FAA has delayed the selection of U.S. sites to be used for the testing of unmanned aircraft.
In a letter to Republican Congressman Howard McKeon of California, chairman of the House Unmanned Systems Caucus, FAA Acting Administrator Michael Huerta said the establishment of six test sites for UAV experimentation has been suspended indefinitely. Huerta wrote, “…increasing the use of UAS in our airspace also raises privacy issues, and these issues will need to be addressed as unmanned aircraft are safely integrated.”
This delay in selecting the test sites needed to develop and prove the necessary UAS and system technologies puts in question the timeline for UAS integration mandated by Congress in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012.
Click the link below to read the article written by Stephen Pope in the online version of Flying Magazine…
FAA Slows Pace of UAV Integration
Rich Hanson
AMA Government and Regulatory Affairs