On November 21, 2015, the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Registration Task Force Aviation Rulemaking Committee, chartered by the FAA, issued its Final Report to the FAA containing the Task Force’s recommendations for how the FAA should implement a national drone registry system. With the dueling goals of maintaining safety in the National Airspace System (NAS) while also encouraging the emergence of the nascent UAS industry, the Task Force was given a difficult job: “develop recommendations for the creation of a registration process” for sUAS. The Final Report is particularly timely, as somewhere between 500,000 to 1 million drones (nearly all of which will be sUAS) are expected to be sold in the United States over the upcoming holiday season.

THE TASK FORCE’S RECOMMENDATIONS -

Although the final report contains ample evidence of disagreement amongst the Task Force’s 25 members (which ranged from Google to DJI to Walmart), a “general consensus” was ultimately reached on the following recommendations...