Unmanned Drones Now A Strong Reality After FAA Approval

CEO of Amazon.com AMZN Jeff Bezos revealed one of the company's most secret projects during a segment on CBS' 60 Minutes: un-manned drones to be used as delivery tools.

Many analysts and pundits immediately doubted the feasibility of Amazon.com utilizing a fleet of drones to deliver packages to customers. The biggest hurdle was the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not permit private drones flying in the vast majority of U.S. airspace.

All this is set to change.

According to the Wall Street Journal, aviation officials on December 30 selected a small handful of universities and state agencies to operate sites for drone testing.

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The participants chosen include Texas A&M University, the commerce department of North Dakota, the state of Nevada, a public airport 250 miles north of New York City, the University of Alaska and a partnership between Virginia Tech and Rutgers University.

The first site is expected to begin operating within six months.

Research will be conducted to determine firstly if unmanned aircraft is safe. Tests will be conducted across various geographical areas, climates and types of airspace. The end goal is an eventual integration of commercial unmanned aircraft within the U.S. aviation system.

The FAA intends to pursue a “staged integration of unmanned aircraft,” according to Michael Huerta, head of the FAA. The agency will “see where the research takes us.”

Amazon.com customers hoping to place an order and wait for a drone to land in their front yard will have to wait a few years.

Commercial drones are unlikely to be approved until 2020 or later. Full scale routine flights by tens of thousands of government and commercial drones aren't expected until at least 2025.