The Federal Aviation Administration has issued restricted
category type certificates to a pair of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a
milestone that will lead to the first approved commercial UAS operations later
this summer.
The newly certified UAS—Insitu’s Scan Eagle X200 and
AeroVironment’s PUMA—are “small” UAS weighing less than 55 pounds. Each is
about 4 ½ feet long, with wingspans of ten and nine feet, respectively.