Feds open door for commercial drones

Published 1:16 pm Tuesday, June 21, 2016

The Obama administration threw open the door Tuesday for businesses currently using drones, while putting the brakes on fleets of delivery drones and other potential future uses in development.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s new drone rules takes a largely hands-off approach to businesses using drones weighing less than 55 pounds, which is the majority of current commercial drones. The FAA effectively treats them as model airplanes, an approach commercial drone advocates had backed.

However, the rules prohibit flying over people, so don’t expect to see fleets of delivery drones buzzing overhead. Both Google and Amazon have been developing drone delivery systems.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.