Hollywood’s drone approvals may chart course for others
The decision to approve drones for filming movies in the U.S. may create opportunities for other industries — from crop dusting to map making — that see value in using unmanned aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration is considering requests to allow drones to be used in agriculture operations, land surveying and oilfield inspections. Thursday, six movie and television companies were granted the first permits for commercial drone flights in the continental U.S.
Those production companies convinced the FAA that they are capable of safely using drones in filming scenes, successfully navigating a regulatory process that now becomes a model for other businesses seeking approval, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. He singled out the “promise of new advances in agriculture and utility safety and maintenance.”
“It’s a crucial step in the safe integration” of drones into the aviation system, Foxx later told reporters on a conference call Thursday. “As we’ve seen, uses for unmanned aircraft are only limited by our imagination.”
At least 40 additional waiver requests are pending for commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems, including from Amazon.com Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s BNSF Railway Co., according to the FAA.
Benjamin Trapnell, an aeronautics professor at the University of North Dakota who developed the school’s unmanned aircraft study pro- gram, said he is considering filing an application allowing students to fly drones at the school.
“The fact that they’re allowing anybody to do it from a commercial point of view is great,” Trapnell said in an interview.
The FAA Thursday said it granted the six movie and TV production companies waivers from regulations on general flight rules, pilot certification and equipment mandates designed for traditional aircraft as long as they meet certain conditions for safety. The agency is working with a seventh company on a similar drone approval. The companies developed safety procedures with the help of the Motion Picture Association of America trade group, FAA administrator Michael Huerta said.
He also encouraged other industries to develop common practices for drone use applications. Businesses want to use drones for surveying, monitoring crops and inspecting electrical grids and pipe- lines, Huerta said.
While applauding the FAA’s decision as an “important milestone,” an Arlington, Va.-based trade group for the drone industry said the agency must continue working on other applications.
“The FAA can and must do more,” Michael Toscano, president and chief executive of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, said in an emailed statement.
The Hollywood companies, which include closely held Aerial MOB LLC and Pictorvision Inc., will be allowed to fly small drones carrying cameras on closed sets. The FAA said the aircraft must be inspected before each flight and may only be operated during the day. Any accidents or incidents must be reported.
The six companies filed almost identical petitions with the FAA on June 2 seeking to fly drones weighing less than 25 kilograms no more than 123 metres from the ground within a “sterile area.”