The FAA will work with several partners from private industry to “explore the next steps” in allowing unmanned aircraft operations in the national airspace, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced Wednesday at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Atlanta, Georgia. “This is a big job, and we’ll get to our goal of safe, widespread UAS integration more quickly by leveraging the resources and expertise of the industry,” Huerta said. The initiative, called the Pathfinder Program, will focus on making progress in three areas: visual line-of-sight operations in urban areas, with industry partner CNN; extended visual line-of-sight operations in rural areas, with industry partner PrecisionHawk; and beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations in rural and isolated areas, with BNSF Railroad.
“Even as we pursue our current rulemaking effort for small unmanned aircraft, we must continue to actively look for future ways to expand non-recreational UAS uses,” Huerta said. “This new initiative involving three leading U.S. companies will help us anticipate and address the needs of the evolving UAS industry.” The three companies reached out to the FAA to work on research to help expand use of UAS in the nation’s airspace. CNN and the FAA already have been working together through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. BNSF has a draft CRDA that is nearly complete and UAS manufacturer PrecisionHawk has been working with the FAA on a possible research partnership. Huerta said the initiative will produce “valuable data … that could result in FAA-approved operations in the next few years. … We are learning together, as an industry and as a regulator.”
The FAA said in a news release that it will work “as quickly as possible” to move forward with a final rule, but must address the 4,500 public comments that were filed on the proposed rule. “The number and complexity of the comments will play a role in determining the timeline for a final rule,” according to the news release.
