FAA
Every UASFeed story on FAA — across defense, counter-UAS, industry, commercial, policy, and tech, newest first.
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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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Commercial & Delivery
Aerial Triage: How Drones Became Essential to Disaster Response—and Where the Gaps Remain
From mapping Turkey earthquake rubble in 17 seconds to delivering supplies in post-cyclone Vanuatu, drones have proven themselves in disaster response. The harder problems—coordination, authorization timing, data handoffs, and privacy—remain partly unsolved.
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Industry & Contracts
Drone Insurance Decoded: Liability, Hull, BVLOS, and What Things Cost
Part 107 proves you can fly — it doesn't cover anything when something goes wrong. A structured look at commercial UAS insurance: coverage types, premium ranges by operation, the on-demand policy model, and why BVLOS requires its own specialist approach.
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Commercial & Delivery
Drone Photography for Real Estate: Part 107, Airspace, and the Business Case
NAR's 2025 Technology Survey found 52 percent of REALTORS® now use drone photography — and homes with aerial shots are 68 percent more likely to sell. Here is what the FAA commercial definition, Part 107 certification mechanics, and current pricing structure actually look like for operators and agents.
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Commercial & Delivery
How Drone Surveying Became Standard Infrastructure on the Construction Job Site
A look at the actual workflows — photogrammetry pipelines, stockpile measurement, as-built comparison, BIM integration — and the ROI evidence that turned weekly drone flights into standard operating procedure for major contractors.
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Commercial & Delivery
Blood in 30 Minutes: Medical Drone Delivery's Proof Points—and Its Limits
Zipline's decade of operations across Africa has produced peer-reviewed evidence of reduced maternal mortality and vaccine stockouts. US hospital networks are building toward BVLOS corridors—but the FAA's case-by-case waiver system remains the binding constraint.
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Commercial & Delivery
How Drones Rewrote Aerial Cinematography: From FAA Exemptions to FPV
From the FAA's first six commercial UAS exemptions in September 2014 to FPV drones threading car chases in major studio releases, drone technology has restructured what aerial cinematography can do — and who can afford to do it.
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Tech & Builds
Detect and Avoid: The Technology Standing Between Drones and the Open Sky
BVLOS operations at scale hinge on one unsolved problem: teaching drones to see and avoid other aircraft without a pilot's eyes. A look at the cooperative and non-cooperative sensing, competing standards, and hardware programs racing to close that gap.
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Tech & Builds
UAS Traffic Management: The Decentralized Architecture Replacing ATC Below 400 Feet
The FAA provides no air traffic services below 400 feet, where drone density is set to explode. UAS Traffic Management replaces centralized control with a federated network of software intermediaries — and a decade of NASA research shows why that architecture is the only one that can scale.
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Tech & Builds
eVTOL, Drone, UAV, UAS, RPAS: A Precise Guide to Six Terms That Aren't Interchangeable
Six overlapping terms describe aircraft that fly without an on-board human — or sometimes with one. Which label applies determines which regulations govern you, how DoD classifies a platform, and whether a Joby air taxi is legally a drone at all.
