Blogs

AsiaIndustrial NetThe U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Tuesday (March 21 local time) that the number of drones in the U.S. will grow significantly over the next five years, according to a Reuters website.

In 2016, the Obama administration implemented a new bill to open up airspace resources to low-level small drones, which can be used in education, research, and regular commercial use. At present, relevant US policymakers are studying whether to allow the expansion of the use of drones, such as the use of drones to deliver goods outside the operator’s line of sight.

The Federal Aviation Administration expects the number of small amateur drones in the U.S. to more than triple to more than 3.5 million by 2021, up from a forecast of 1.1 million in 2016. The agency also expects the number of commercial drones in the U.S. to increase significantly from 42,000 at the end of 2016 to about 442,000 by 2021, and it said the number of commercial drones in use in the United States could reach up to 1.6 million by 2021. .

The FAA also said Tuesday that a key difference in its forecast for future growth in commercial drones is “how quickly the regulatory environment is shifting to allow more conventional drones to be put into commercial use.”

The bureau also expects the number of U.S. drone “pilots” to increase 10 to 20 times by 2021, up from 20,000 in 2016.

Since last August, the Federal Aviation Administration has approved more than 300 drone applications (unrestricted), using drones including Union Pacific Railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Intel Company, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and HBO and CNN owned by Time Warner.

In a speech to firefighters this month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Xiaolan Chao pointed out that while drones have great potential to assist emergency responders, their use can create a host of problems if not carefully monitored.

The existing regulations governing the use of drones require that the drone operator must be ready to manually intervene in the work of commercial drones and keep the drone in the operator’s line of sight at all times.

Amazon and Google have launched research and development projects to use drones to deliver goods ordered online.

The White House said last year that the drone sector could grow the economy by as much as $82 billion and create up to 100,000 jobs by 2025.

Since the U.S. government approved several UAV application plans in August last year, UAVs have been used in fields such as agriculture, technology research and development and academic applications, electric powercableinspection of pipeline lines and antennas, medical rescue, bridge inspection, aerial photography, and assessment of wildlife nests.