On 6 May in Washington the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a partnership with industry to explore the next steps in unmanned aircraft operations beyond the type of operations the agency proposed in the draft small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) rule it published in February.

Said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx: ‘Government has some of the best and brightest minds in aviation, but we cannot operate in a vacuum. This is a big job, and we will get to our goal of safe, widespread UAS integration more quickly by leveraging the resources and expertise of the industry.’