On November 18th of this year the NTSB issued a decision saying that the current federal regulations applying to manned aircraft also apply to UAV or drones. Also, NTSB ruled that the FAA definition of aircraft as “any device … used for flight in the air” applies to “any aircraft, manned or unmanned, large or small.” In essence, this could mean that the flight in the air of a paper plane or a toy wood balsa glider could subject the operator to FAA penalties.

AUVSI recently released a report titled The Economic Impact of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently has heavy restrictions on unmanned aircraft flying in the nation’s airspace. In the report, we explore the economic implications to the United States once these FAA restriction are lifted. Congress has set a September 30th, 2015 deadline for this integration.