The Federal Aviation Administration introduced a proposal Sunday that would give thousands of businesses the freedom to fly drones for commercial purposes.
Under the proposed rules, all real estate agents, aerial photographers, police departments, farmers and other workers would need to do to operate such technology is pass a written proficiency test, register the drone and pay about $200 in fees, according to The Washington Post. They won't have to obtain a regular pilot's license or show how well they can fly unmanned aerial vehicles.
Businesses would only be allowed to fly drones during daylight hours, and drones couldn't fly faster than 100 miles per hour. The machines must also stay below 500 so that they don't collide with other aircraft.
Operators would be able to fly drones weighing up to 55 pounds under the agency's proposed rules, and they would have to be at least 17 years old, USA Today reported.
"We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said. "We want to maintain today's outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry."
President Obama also took action in regards to drones on Sunday, signing a presidential memorandum that would require federal agencies to publish details on the way they access their drone-related policies in one year. Such details would include how they collect information with the technology and what they do with the data.
The memo is intended to make sure operators don't violate the First Amendment or discriminate against people because of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation, USA Today reported.
Both the FAA's proposed regulations and the presidential memo focus on establishing rules for flying drones and making sure aviation disasters and unrestrained government surveillance don't happen, The Washington Post reported.
Huerta said operators and manufacturers wouldn't have to certify in advance that their drones are safe to fly because small drones "pose the least amount of risk in our airspace."
The rules would not apply to people who fly drones for fun or recreational purposes, as a law passed by Congress in 2012 prevents the FAA from regulating them unless they interfere with regular air traffic.
The proposed rules must go through public review and comment before being completed, which is expected to take at least until early 2017, The Washington Post reported. The FAA estimates that once the regulations are finalized, over 7,000 businesses will have drone permits within three years.
