Friday, March 20, 2015

Amazon Gets Permission for Delivery Drone Testing

     Finally, we may all start seeing Amazon drones overhead as of March 19th, 2015 after Amazon had threatened to take their business overseas the FAA has issued them an "experimental airworthiness certificate
After Amazon had announced it's drone plans in December 2013, it seemed that the FAA regulations would not allow this to be a reality though. A year later in 2014 Amazon then threatens to move its operations overseas. The FAA had not made any progress on the matter until just recently when last month it published a proposal with new rules which would help legalize commercial drone flight, and have granted a number of exemptions to other companies that wanted to begin field testing with flying robots.
     These new rules however, including the exemption granted to Amazon today, require the drones remain within line of sight of the pilot at all times, and in Amazon's case the driver must also have "a private pilot's certificate and current medical certification" and although these restrictions will allow for initial testing, it is hard to picture how they would ever be able to go commercial with the severely limited distance available.
     It is extremely promising that they are working together now or at least trying to. So we will have to see what Amazon's drone project has in store.

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