FAA Approves 1st Commercial UAS Flights Over Land


Av8Chuck

Member
How do you know this is big bucks? I didn't see any mention of how much this costs? Of coarse I'm not sure why it should cost anything, since our tax dollars already pay the FAA to do their job in the first place. If this costs money then I think we should be allow to stop paying taxes.
 

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
How do you know this is big bucks? I didn't see any mention of how much this costs? Of coarse I'm not sure why it should cost anything, since our tax dollars already pay the FAA to do their job in the first place. If this costs money then I think we should be allow to stop paying taxes.

Well, BP is never know to do things on the cheap - and since the Puma package costs in the neighborhood of $400k, it's definitely "big bucks" compared to my quad :)
 

kloner

Aerial DP
This is THE only company ever granted airworthiness certs on uavs and they have been flying over water in alaska for a year. there just now granted permission to fly over land. They are the largest uav supplier to the pentagon......
 

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
Ora not like they only sell this expensive kit. For the budget conscious, they have a bargain version I think called the raven - a steal at $250k!
 

pizzano

Just An Old CCPM'er
I don't think the guy questioning the $$$ aspect has not been following that particular case very well......BP and AeroVironment have been working on this (and a couple of other related sites) for more than 3 years.......BP's lobbyist along with a few other UAS industry influentials, have been knocking on the Fed's and FAA door for sometime....and that takes $$$.....it's not just the big bucks for the equipment I alluded too..!
 

Av8Chuck

Member
So if BP, who is apparently willing to spend north of $400K and the largest uav supplier to the pentagon can't make this happen how the hell are any of the rest of us supposed to be able to compete with that?

The certification process, over regulation and bureaucratic BS from the FAA is killing the General Aviation industry in the US, it is likely that it is going to make commercial AP from RC so onerous that none of us will be able to afford to comply with whatever crap they come up with.

The FAA and the government needs to get out of the business of trying to pick winner's or we all lose.

Under 50lbs, under 400ft and responsible people should be allowed to create businesses using multirotors. Not terribly difficult.
 

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