first published week of: 12/21/2015
Private owners of small unmanned aerial systems are required to begin registering the drones with the government, according to new Federal Aviation Administration rules released on Dec. 14.
The agency has been working double-time to get the registration process set up before an expected onslaught of what FAA Administrator Michael Huerta has said could be more than half a million of the aircraft purchased for the holidays.
FAA officials said they needed to move quickly because of increasing reports in 2015 of drones interfering with civilian aviation and other airborne activity, including drones operating near airports, at high altitudes or in the vicinity of emergency response aircraft.
Beginning Dec. 21, the FAA will institute a simple, web-based registration system that will issue a single identification number to each registrant to cover all the unmanned aircraft owned by that person. Registrants must be at least 13 years old.
The registration is good for three years and costs $5 per person, although the agency said it is waiving the fee for the first 30 days to encourage people to sign up. The fee is based on estimated costs to develop and maintain the registry, and officials said they will adjust the fee based on the actual costs associated with the system.
The FAA estimated that the system will cost the government about $56 million through 2020. Using the paper-based system that applies to larger commercial drones for recreational owners would have cost $383 million.The data collected via the site will include the owner's name, physical address and email address, as well as the aircraft's manufacturer, model name and, in some cases, serial number. Officials said that in the future, they might "require use of serial number for aircraft marking purposes in place of an FAA-issued registration number." continued…