After over a year of planning, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has decided to give online retailer, Amazon, permission to begin tests on their unmanned drones. This step is a major move forward for the Internet seller’s Prime Air enterprise, a system designed to deliver packages into customers’ hands using small unmanned aerial vehicles.
However, the FAA has given Amazon what is called an ‘experimental airworthiness certificate,’ which holds some restrictions. This type of certificate is usually given to aerospace corporations such as Boeing, that participate in research and development, including tests on new drone technologies.
Amazon, on the other hand, had asked for a different kind of approval from the FAA. The online company requested more flexibility – the same kind that has been granted in the past by the FAA to Hollywood film studios and similar organizations that are known for using drones.
The current certificate lays out the rules that it expects Amazon to follow. Some of what it requires is as follows:
1. Amazon has to fly their unmanned drones no higher than 400 feet or 122 meters, and it must be done during daylight hours, when the conditions are clear. These drones are required to stay in the pilot’s line of sight and the drone pilots must be certified to fly with a private pilot’s license; they must also be medically certified to fly.
2. Amazon must also provide monthly reports about the drone operations to the FAA that include how many flights are operated, logs of pilot duty times, data on any technical problems, deviations that occur from an air traffic controller’s directions, and any data on a breakdown in the communication link with the drones.
Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, first revealed the idea of delivery drones back in 2013. However, Amazon had to wait until the FAA updated its rules for controlling unmanned aerial vehicles.
In 2013, Bezo also told reporters that the proposed plan for Amazon would likely have a radius of about 10 miles and would be able to carry packages weighing five pounds or less, which the company states makes up around 80 percent of most of Amazon’s orders. In addition, he also stated that the company’s plan was to have the package delivered to the customer within a half hour.
