Robohub.org
 

Summary of the FAA’s proposed drone regulations


by
19 February 2015



share this:
photo: FAA

photo: FAA

This past Sunday the FAA held a conference call to announce its highly anticipated small UAS (sUAS) regulations. Sunday morning might strike as odd timing, however it’s likely that the timing had to do with the leak of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Regulatory Evaluation, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which I wrote about here. Below is a summary of the critical aspects of the proposed regulations from the FAA summary (the proposed rules have not been made available at the time of writing).

Operational Limitations

  • UAS must be under 55lbs
  • UAS must be operated within visual line of sight
  • FPV is not permitted
  • Operator must not fly over people not involved in the operation
  • Daylight operations only
  • Maximum speed of 87 knots
  • Maximum altitude 500 feet AGL
  • A single person cannot act as an operator for more than one UAS operation at a time

Operator Certification and Responsibilities

  • Operators must pass an aeronautical test
  • Operators must obtain an sUAS operating certificate

Aircraft Requirements

  • Airworthiness is NOT required
  • Aircraft markings required

Model Aircraft

  • Proposed rule would not apply to model aircraft
  • Proposed rule would codify the FAA’s enforcement authority in respect of model aircraft operators who are endangering the safety of the national airspace

Some of the items that are not addressed in the FAA summary which I am particularly interested in are: (1) whether the proposed rules allow a single person to operate a fleet of drones within the same operation, and (2) what the TSA security clearance check will entail.



tags: , , ,


Diana Marina Cooper is Vice President of Legal and Policy Affairs at PrecisionHawk.
Diana Marina Cooper is Vice President of Legal and Policy Affairs at PrecisionHawk.





Related posts :



Social media round-up from #IROS2025

  27 Oct 2025
Take a look at what participants got up to at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

Using generative AI to diversify virtual training grounds for robots

  24 Oct 2025
New tool from MIT CSAIL creates realistic virtual kitchens and living rooms where simulated robots can interact with models of real-world objects, scaling up training data for robot foundation models.

Robot Talk Episode 130 – Robots learning from humans, with Chad Jenkins

  24 Oct 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Chad Jenkins from University of Michigan about how robots can learn from people and assist us in our daily lives.

Robot Talk at the Smart City Robotics Competition

  22 Oct 2025
In a special bonus episode of the podcast, Claire chatted to competitors, exhibitors, and attendees at the Smart City Robotics Competition in Milton Keynes.

Robot Talk Episode 129 – Automating museum experiments, with Yuen Ting Chan

  17 Oct 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Yuen Ting Chan from Natural History Museum about using robots to automate molecular biology experiments.

What’s coming up at #IROS2025?

  15 Oct 2025
Find out what the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems has in store.

From sea to space, this robot is on a roll

  13 Oct 2025
Graduate students in the aptly named "RAD Lab" are working to improve RoboBall, the robot in an airbag.

Robot Talk Episode 128 – Making microrobots move, with Ali K. Hoshiar

  10 Oct 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Ali K. Hoshiar from University of Essex about how microrobots move and work together.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence