Official: FAA takes first step to allow UAVs to fly in U.S.

The test sites are the first step toward a more dramatic mandate Congress imposed on the agency in the long-awaited FAA reauthorization bill President Obama signed Feb. 14. In a sweet Valentine to the burgeoning unmanned aerial systems industry, the new law gives the FAA three years -- two less than it took Congress to pass the act – to "integrate" UAVs into the national air space, or NAS, meaning set policies that will let drones share the air with piloted aircraft.
"These test sites will help us ensure that our high safety standards are maintained as use of these aircraft becomes more widespread," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

The test sites will be used in part to develop "sense-and-avoid" technologies as reliable as the "see-and-avoid" standard the FAA requires of manned aircraft to prevent midair collisions.
The FAA doesn't have a lot of time to figure out where to place the test ranges and what they'll consist of – technicalities Congress didn't address when it required them both in the FAA bill and the fiscal 2012 defense authorization act. Under the defense bill, where House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., put the UAS test range provisions when the FAA reauthorization bill seemed likely to fail once again, the deadline for opening the UAS test sites is July. Under the FAA bill, the agency has until August.