This month, ten years ago, I published a blog post about the future of drone regulations. I had just moved back to the Bay Area, and many people from the tech industry were exploring the new and exciting world of civilian drones.
As the number of conversations grew, it became clear that some very smart people had great ideas about the technical side of drones but needed to understand the regulatory implications for a startup or growing business. Usually, the Silicon Valley ethos doesn’t care much about regulations and tends to push forward and apologize later. However, while that may work in many industries, it is not a possible strategy for aviation.
Around here, someone can kill a great vibe by bringing up regulations. At the same time, what’s the point of starting a new business unless one fully understands the aerospace regulatory environment and what it means for the company? Why would I start a business only to run into a brick wall some years later?
My answer was to write a short blog post to help my tech friends better understand the regulatory environment. The post's main point was encouraging people to look at existing aircraft regulations as a proxy for future uncrewed drone regulations. In the post, I posited: “Autonomous operations may be allowed under very controlled circumstances on a case-by-case basis within the next 10 years (my personal estimate), and complete regulations for autonomous UAV operations are years past that.” It was a contrarian position at the time, as most who had not been in aviation thought autonomous drones would be flying in large numbers by the 2016 timeframe at the latest. At the time, I hoped that I would be wrong, but it turns out that things are going more slowly than anticipated.
Even with the slow regulatory progress, it’s been fascinating to watch the growth of delivery drones, military drones, action-following drones, and an amazing new body of photography from drones.
https://lnkd.in/bxR3YTU
