Not allowed: drone carrying package.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is set to propose new rules for drone flights intended for commercial purposes within the United States.
The rules will ease some limits but will still restrict drones from being used for the delivery of packages and for the inspection of pipelines.
Under the new FAA rules, all use of unmanned aircraft requires pilots to secure special pilot certificates. Pilots are also required to stay away from bystanders and are only allowed to fly drones during daytime.
The proposed rules also limit flying drones to a maximum of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) at 500 feet above the ground.
The new rules also require drones to fly only if they remain within the pilot's line of sight.
Recognizing the drawbacks of this specific rule, the FAA proposed certain flights could still be done with the assistance of an additional observer.
"This rule does not deal with beyond line of sight, but does allow for the use of a visual observer to augment line of sight by the operator of the unmanned aircraft," said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta to Reuters .
After being crafted for a decade, the proposed rules have yet to go through public comment and revision. The process is expected to be finalized this year or next.
In its current state, the new rules won't benefit e-commerce industry giants like Amazon that are keen on offering delivery of packages using drones to its clients.
"We don't consider or contemplate in this rule carrying packages outside of the aircraft itself." Huerta added.
