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The manned and unmanned aviation communities do not see eye-to-eye on any number of issues.  Each side has a vision of how unmanned aircraft fit into the National Airspace System, and each side continually engages with the FAA to push that vision.  While the FAA’s attempt to balance these competing views often leaves one or both sides disappointed, one thing that both sides agree on is that these decisions should be left to the FAA.… Read More

For those of you who may have missed the live presentation of the latest Aviation Webinar Series, “Flying for the Feds: USTRANSCOM, CRAF, CARB, DBA and the Rest of the Alphabet,” you can view the entire presentation by clicking on the links below.

The slide deck from the webinar is available here. The webinar recording is available here.

Check back here for updates on the next webinar: “Trains, Highways, Boats and Pipelines: Dos and Don’ts for Non-Aviation NTSB Accident Investigations,” scheduled for January 9, 2020!… Read More

It’s a question asked by kids (and backseat drivers) everywhere. In the case of the remote identification of drones, the driver is the FAA, and the Congress, as always, is in the back seat.

Congress has the authority to set priorities for administrative agencies. In addition to wheedling and cajoling agency Administrators and Secretaries when they testify before Congress, they can pass laws requiring the agency to act by a fixed deadline.… Read More

In a recent post, we discussed the Safe Landings Act (H.R. 4166), pending legislation introduced in August of this year. In this post, we discuss another piece of pending legislation – the Safe and Quiet Skies Act of 2019.

The Safe and Quiet Skies Act of 2019 (H.R. 4547) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on September 27, 2019, by Representative Ed Case of Hawaii’s First Congressional District (located entirely on the Island of Oahu, including the City and County of Honolulu).… Read More

With the enactment of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 in October of last year, Congress, to a large extent, has taken a breather from introducing aviation legislation.  Two recent bills, however, address key aviation safety issues and merit examination – the Safe Landings Act and the Safe and Quiet Skies Act of 2019.  We discuss the Safe Landings Act in this post and will address the Safe and Quiet Skies Act of 2019 in a following post.… Read More

For those of you who may have missed the live presentation of the latest in our ongoing UAS Webinar Series, “Drone Defense: Rules, Regulations, Dos and Don’ts,” you can view the entire  presentation by clicking on the links below.

The slide deck from the webinar is available here. The webinar recording is available here.

Check back here for updates on the next webinar, which will be held on November 21, 2019!… Read More

As most readers know, the lack of a standard for the remote identification of unmanned aircraft has held up progress in a number of areas critical for integration of UAS into the national airspace system.  Rules for flight over people and in heavily congested areas, protection of critical infrastructure, beyond visual line of sight operations and unmanned traffic management, and effective counter-drone systems all require a remote ID solution. … Read More

According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), “the size of the global space economy, which combines satellite services and ground equipment, government space budgets, and global navigation satellite services (GNSS) equipment, is estimated to be about $345B.”   Interestingly, government space budgets only account for $83 billion, or a little under 25 percent of the total.  A robust commercial space launch industry is necessary to keep up with increasing demand. … Read More

The FAA started 2019 off in a big way, releasing two major UAS rulemakings on the same day.  The public notice and comment period for both rules is now closed, and it is interesting to see what the public thinks of these proposals. … Read More