The FAA 2020 UAS Symposium is back with a little twist due to COVID-19. The FAA 2020 UAS Symposium: Remotely Piloted Edition will now be fully online with a two-episode schedule taking place at the end of July and mid-August.
Every year the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) organizes the FAA UAS Symposium. And even though it might not be the sexiest, most flashy event, it is probably the most important event of the year, as it brings together all the policymakers and industry players to talk about the latest developments and regulations in the drone industry.
I’m sure the FAA’s NPRM for Remote ID for Drones and its consequences will be on top of everybody’s mind during this year’s symposium. The FAA UAS Symposium will take place on June 16-18, 2020 at the Baltimore Convention Center. You can register here.
This week is all about the FAA Symposium 2019 in Baltimore. Originally scheduled for earlier this year, the symposium is now in its fourth year and welcomes 1,100 attendees from various parts of the drone industry. It is a must-attend event for any commercial drone business interested in staying up to date and learning about the drone rules and regulations that are currently being made and implemented. We will try to attend as many sessions as possible and bring you highlights and most important news from the event. So stay tuned for more about the FAA Symposium 2019.
It’s back! Phew! For a while, we weren’t quite sure if the FAA Symposium would be canceled altogether or not. Luckily, it hasn’t and the FAA just announced a new date for the 4th annual UAS Symposium that the FAA organizes together with AUVSI. The UAS Symposium will now take place from June 3rd through 5th at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD. You can register for the event here.
It didn’t really come as a surprise, but it is very unfortunate nonetheless. As a result of the government shutdown the FAA UAS Symposium that was supposed to take place at the Baltimore Convention Center from February 12-14, 2019 has now been officially postponed. In an email from AUVSI, we were informed that the convention has officially been postponed due to the government shutdown and that ” new conference dates will be announced after furloughed FAA employees return to work.” Expand
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Amazon Prime Air and other companies may begin delivering packages by drone as soon as this summer, according to federal regulators and industry officials. Since late last year, the White House has started to put more pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to work with companies to make delivering packages by drone and other drone applications a reality.
At the FAA UAS Symposium last week, it became clear that drone deliveries may be here sooner than we think as federal officials promised drone proponents: “We’ll help you get there.”
In a blog post, Ford announced that they are seriously looking into drones as an addition to their product portfolio. The post covers two concepts: using the anti-collision lights of drones for identification purposes which we covered here, and a customizable UAV development platform. We will look into the second one in more detail in this post.
During last week’s FAA Symposium in Baltimore, Amazon, Boeing, GE, and Google announced that they are ready to start working on the development of a private Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system for drones. Testing in conjunction with NASA is supposed to start in the next three months. The system will enable swarms of drones to fly a couple of hundred feet above the ground using cellular and web applications to avoid collisions and allow for remote tracking.
Ford is the third car manufacturer this week to make news in the drone industry. First, we had Porsche and Audi who both announced to be working on passenger or taxi-drones. Now it is Ford’s turn. As unlikely as it may seem the American car company was one of the panelists during the FAA Symposium in Baltimore. Apparently, Ford has been working with the FAA to create a remote tracking and identification system for drones, based on the anti-collision LED lights that you find on most unmanned aerial vehicles.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration official at the FAA Symposium, there are 10 times more drones registered in the US than manned aircraft. And, as we know, so many unmanned aerial vehicles in the hands of consumers has led to many drone incidents as well. Federal officials are urgently looking to mitigate the risk of drones in the hands of “the clueless, the careless, and the criminals” by introducing drone identification and new powers for the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to track, disrupt and bring down unmanned aerial vehicles that pose a threat to security.
The FAA’s Acting Administrator, Dan Elwell, announced during the FAA Symposium last week that the tests of the automated Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system will be expanded. This is an important step towards an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management System (UTM).
Next week will be the 3rd Annual FAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Symposium at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD. The event will run from March 6 to 8 and is organized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). If you ever wanted to have some face time with people from the FAA this is your chance. You can register here.