UAS Service Industry Call for FAA Regulatory Framework Written 25 August 2023

Artist-renditiion-urban-air-mobility-NASA

Artist’s rendition of an Urban Air Mobility environment | NASA

Aviation Today reports that uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) service suppliers are requesting for the FAA “to implement a regulatory framework to safely integrate small UAS into airspace at altitudes of 400 feet and below, after years of delays.” The FAA is “working with industry and public stakeholders to develop a UAS traffic management (UTM) system.” The FAA began “collaborating with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2015 to establish and implement a framework to research, develop and test increasingly complex UTM concepts and capabilities with industry stakeholders.” Aloft Founder and CEO Jon Hegranes said that the FAA and NASA are “sitting on their hands,” waiting to “see what industry does.” The emergence of UAS “has the potential to provide significant social and economic benefits to the United States, according to a January 2021 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.” The FAA in 2020 “forecasted that, by 2024, the small UAS commercial fleet, those operating in connection to a business, would grow from 507,000 to 828,000.”
Full Story (Aviation Today)