The Federal Aviation Administration today released a proposed set of rules for small unmanned aircraft systems, a.k.a. drones, for which it had previously banned commercial flights. The rules require commercial drone pilots to be certified (at a cost of less than $300) and fly under 500 feet during daylight hours within sight of their aircraft. Applications could include real estate photography, precision agriculture, search and rescue, law enforcement and bridge inspection — but not remote package delivery like Amazon drones.
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