Federal aviation and safety officials conceded Tuesday that bureaucracy and red tape are letting Europe get ahead of the U.S. in advancing the technology for commercial use of unmanned aerial drones.
That’s what Gerald Dillingham, director of the Government Accountability Office’s Office of Civil Aviation Issues, said in a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee, when Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., asked whether the U.S. was always going to be behind Europe in adopting the technology.
“If we were to implement the [government’s] proposed rulemaking now, we would be on par in many ways with many foreign countries. However, we are probably 16-18 months away from doing that, and they will still keep moving forward,” Dillingham said. He said that the Federal Aviation Administration should still be “congratulated” for moving forward to the extent that it has, but added, “there are still some very critical things that need to happen to keep us in the game.”
Margaret Gilligan, the FAA’s aviation safety administrator, said the problem was that the U.S. has yet to figure out various technological problems associated with drones, also known as “unmanned aerial vehicles” or “unmanned aircraft systems.”
The main one, she said, was finding a technological way to allow drones to safely operate out of the operator’s line of sight, the main stumbling block for allowing commercial use. Drones do not yet have the technology to “see and avoid” other vehicles.
“We are talking about introducing systems that aren’t designed or manufactured in any [way] that we are accustomed to. We think that is a risk that needs to be addressed in this rulemaking,” Gilligan said, adding later, “we don’t yet have the technology standards established.”
That will take about a year, she said. The administration is gathering public comments on how to best address the issue and is working with the industry.
Paul Misener, vice president of global public policy for Amazon, which wants to use drones for package delivery, said the Obama administration needs to be looking ahead. He said that by the time the administration granted the company’s request to use a drone, Amazon had already abandoned the model as outdated. “The fact that we are not yet even proposing rules or even proposing frameworks for rules is lamentable,” he said.
The administration has been under pressure to speed up the adoption of rules for drones. Though generally associated with high-tech military warfare, unmanned drones have numerous commercial uses. Agribusiness wants them to monitor, dust and water crops. Amazon wants them to deliver packages. The movie industry wants them for aerial photography. The energy industry could use them to monitor pipelines.
Commercial drone use is currently prohibited without a special license, though non-commercial use is generally allowed. The licenses are granted on an ad-hoc basis. The administration has yet formulate official rules.
Earlier Tuesday, the administration announced that under an interim rule, it will grant blanket flying permission to applicants whose drones weigh less than 55 pounds and who agree to keep flights under 200 feet. They will be able to fly only in the daytime and must keep away from airports.
The administration’s proposed regulations would reportedly prohibit operating drones above people not involved in the device’s use.
