AV News: Commercial Drone Boom

The commercial drone industry is booming! Kendall Mark takes a look at where it's going - and how policy makers will need to hurry to keep up with it. It is well-documented that commercial drone regulation is lagging behind innovation. If one new study is to be believed, policy makers are going to have to hurry up if they want to keep up with the movers and shakers of the commercial drone industry. According to a recent report from the Federal Aviation Administration the amount of commercial Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems will more than quadruple in the next 4 years. That means they are projecting around 2.7 million drones will be in the commercial market by 2020, up from 600,000 this year. The FAA projects just under half of those small UAS will be used for Industrial Inspection, around a quarter for Real Estate and Aerial Photography, 19 percent on Agriculture, 15 percent for Insurance, and just 2 percent by the Government. The report says “Unmanned aircraft will be the most dynamic growth sector within aviation.” Many businesses and pilots hope that legislation will keep up with that growth.