{"id":10922,"date":"2018-09-03T12:32:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T12:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=10922"},"modified":"2018-09-03T12:32:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T12:32:39","slug":"faa-says-drone-pilot-program-off-to-an-exciting-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/unmanned-systems\/faa-says-drone-pilot-program-off-to-an-exciting-start\/%20","title":{"rendered":"FAA Says Drone Pilot Program Off to an Exciting Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The FAA\u2019s UAS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/uas\/programs_partnerships\/uas_integration_pilot_program\/\">Integration Pilot Program<\/a> has been busy accelerating drone technology in four states this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cData gathered from these pilot projects will form the basis of a new regulatory framework to safely integrate drones into our national airspace,\u201d U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao at the May 9 announcement of the 10 selectees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re working with state, local, and tribal governments and private industry to demonstrate and study expanded drone operations,\u201d said Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell. \u201cThis program gives us a better understanding of how operations over people, beyond visual line of sight ops, and flying drones at night work at the local level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Successful flights in North Carolina, Virginia, Kansas and Oklahoma demonstrate how the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/uas\/programs_partnerships\/uas_integration_pilot_program\/awardees\/\">FAA\u2019s program awardees<\/a> are using drones in innovative ways to assist in their communities in their day-to-day duties. Just yesterday, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FAANews\/status\/1034917172034842624\">WakeMed Health and Hospitals successfully flew<\/a> a Matternet drone in Raleigh, N.C. to demonstrate how drones can be used to deliver medical supplies to rural areas. In other flights, the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and the FAA teamed up to successfully complete the country\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NZ7YWfnz8cU&amp;feature=youtu.be\">first long-distance drone delivery test<\/a>; an ice-cream cone was delivered to a child. The Kansas Department of Transportation and the FAA flew a drone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksn.com\/news\/local\/kdot-launches-its-first-flight-in-federal-drone-program\/1369134356\">beyond visual sight<\/a>, a giant step towards advancing drone technology to help precision agriculture and infrastructure inspections. In Oklahoma, the Choctaw Nation and the FAA demonstrated how drones can be used to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/tech\/22944\/the-choctaw-nation-in-oklahoma-is-using-drones-to-trap-feral-pigs\">bait feral hog traps<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The FAA UAS Integration Pilot Program is opening the door for new opportunities in commerce, photography, emergency management, agricultural support and infrastructure inspections.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FAA\u2019s UAS Integration Pilot Program has been busy accelerating drone technology in four states this month. \u201cData gathered from these pilot projects will form the basis of a new regulatory framework to safely integrate drones into our national airspace,\u201d U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao at the May 9 announcement of the 10 selectees. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/wakemed-drone.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10924,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10922\/revisions\/10924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}