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At present the FAA allows private citizens to
fly model aircraft with some restrictions
however, commercial use of unmanned aircraft for
the most part is not permitted. In its petition
Amazon is requesting an exemption in order that
the company can test its drones in the U.S.
Amazon states its drone testing would only take
place over Amazon's private property, away from
airports or areas with aviation activity and not
in densely populated areas or near military
bases. At the present time the FAA has only
certified two drone models and they can only be
flown in Alaska. They are the manufactured by
Boeing and the Insitu Group's ScanEagle, and
AeroVironment's Puma.
Back in 2013 congress directed the FAA to allow
commercial use of drones by September 2015. Paul
Misener, Amazon's vice president of global
public policy said "We're continuing to work
with the FAA to meet Congress's goal of getting
drones flying commercially in America safely and
soon. We want to do more research and
development close to home."
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