FAA
Every UASFeed story on FAA — across defense, counter-UAS, industry, commercial, policy, and tech, newest first.
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Policy & Regulation
New Jersey's 2024 Drone Wave: What Federal Investigators Actually Found
In late 2024, weeks of nightly drone sightings across New Jersey and the Northeast triggered a federal investigation, thousands of public tips, and emergency airspace restrictions—before a four-agency joint statement concluded most reports were misidentified manned aircraft, with no foreign nexus and no national security threat.
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Policy & Regulation
The Sound Standard Drone Delivery Doesn't Have Yet
Drone noise sits in household-appliance decibel territory but is measurably 4–10 dB more annoying than jet aircraft at equal sound pressure. A patchwork of bespoke FAA rulings and an unfulfilled congressional mandate have left communities in Texas and Australia with no effective regulatory recourse.
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Policy & Regulation
From ISM Bands to Part 88: How U.S. Drone Spectrum Regulation Works
Most commercial drones fly on unlicensed ISM spectrum shared with Wi-Fi and baby monitors — a structural problem for BVLOS operations that require aviation-grade, interference-protected command links. Here is how a 2012 ITU allocation became Part 88, and what remains unresolved.
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Policy & Regulation
Europe’s U-Space Framework: What the Three 2021 Regulations Actually Require
The EU’s U-space package — three implementing regulations adopted April 2021 and applicable since January 2023 — makes digital airspace services a legal prerequisite for drone operations in designated zones. Here is how the certification regime, four mandatory services, and risk methodology actually work.
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Policy & Regulation
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024: What It Mandates for Drones
Public Law 118-63, signed May 16, 2024, mandates a BVLOS rule, rethinks Remote ID, and funds a five-year runway for aerial autonomy. Here is what every operator and developer needs to know.
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Policy & Regulation
The FAA's Four-Category Rules for Flying Over People, Explained
The FAA's Operations Over People rule, effective April 21, 2021 (as corrected), replaced a blanket waiver requirement with a four-category framework that stratifies access by kinetic energy risk. Here is how the categories work, what Remote ID unlocks — and what it doesn't.
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Policy & Regulation
Part 107 Night Ops: How the 2021 Reform Ended Five Years of Waiver Bureaucracy
The FAA’s April 2021 rule change ended the requirement that commercial drone pilots obtain individual waivers to fly at night, replacing it with two standardized conditions: updated training and a compliant anti-collision strobe visible for 3 statute miles.
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Policy & Regulation
“If You Fly, We Can’t”: How Wildfire TFRs Work and What They Cost Violators
A single recreational drone over an active wildfire can ground an entire air tanker fleet for hours. The FAA’s TFR framework under 14 CFR §91.137, FDC NOTAMs, and civil penalties now reaching $75,000 per violation explain why federal enforcement has hardened.
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Policy & Regulation
FAA Drone Registration Explained: Who Must Register, How, and Why the Rule Almost Died
Every drone over 250 grams flown outdoors in the U.S. requires FAA registration before takeoff. Here is how the two-track system works, the legal battle that briefly voided the rule, and how Remote ID extends registration into the air.
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Policy & Regulation
Who Can Legally Shoot Down a Drone in the US — and Why the Answer Is Complicated
Federal aircraft law, the Aircraft Sabotage Act, and overlapping wiretapping statutes mean that almost nobody — not state police, not sheriffs, not private citizens — had clear legal authority to neutralize a rogue drone until Congress began carving out narrow exceptions.
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Policy & Regulation
The BVLOS Bottleneck: How Drone Delivery Regulation Varies Across the World
Wing has logged over 400,000 deliveries. Meituan runs 28,000 daily flights across 12 Chinese cities. Yet for most of the world, the fundamental question of who can fly autonomously over populated areas remains unresolved — a regulatory coordination problem, not an engineering one.
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Policy & Regulation
Drone Privacy Law in the US: A Jurisdictional Patchwork Built on 1980s Cases
The FAA controls where drones fly but explicitly disclaims authority over what they see. What fills that gap is a collision of 1940s property doctrine, Supreme Court aviation precedents from the Reagan era, 24 divergent state statutes, and a 2024 Michigan ruling that may define the legal terrain for years.
