A million drones to fly off the shelves this Christmas

At the A4A Commercial Aviation Industry Summit, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Rich Swayze stated that the agency expects “a million drones under people’s Christmas trees this year.” This stresses just how popular consumer drones will be in the US this holiday season. .

It is clear, however, that the FAA is worried about this development. The remark was given in the context of concern about a number of reported incidents involving amateur drone pilots violating restricted airspace.

While the discussion about drones from Swayze was one of concern, what is also clear from his remarks is that it will be hard to put the genie back in the bottle, specifically in the US. At present, the FAA has no firm plans to restrict the sale or operation of drones. “I’ve been in DC for 15 years now working on policy and I’ve never seen so many divergent interests driving one topic. One day it’s safety concerns, the next day it’s ‘we’ve got to get these incorporated into the airspace as soon as possible,’ the next day it’s privacy concerns and then the next day it’s security—are these things going to be armed? So it’s really up and down,” he said.

While clouds may be on the horizon for drones, at least when it comes to regulations on use, it is clear that UAVs are expected to be a very hot selling item over the next few months.