Friday, January 22, 2016

At 30-day mark, UAS registration progress encouraging

Posted by Michael Huerta

I am pleased to report that we have made very significant progress on our unmanned aircraft system (UAS) registration effort.

In the first 30 days since the registry went online, nearly 300,000 people (295,306) registered their small unmanned aircraft. These owners also took advantage of a $5 registration fee rebate, which ended yesterday.

We're encouraged by the registration numbers and we're committed to continuing our educational efforts to keep the momentum going. We want all drone pilots to know there is a requirement to register by February 19. Registration is simple and easy through our website


You can register an unlimited number of aircraft under one number, and it's valid for three years.

Registration gives us an excellent opportunity to educate new airspace users, who may have little or no experience with aviation, how to fly safely. It also helps instill in them the safety culture traditional aviation has relied on for more than a century, while still allowing for the innovation that is a staple of American aviation.

When Secretary Foxx and I announced creation of the Registration Task Force last October, many people were skeptical that government and industry could work together to create a viable plan for a registration system within a month. But we did. And we stuck to our original timeline – to have the system up and running before the holidays.


I want to commend the hundreds of thousands of UAS owners who have registered. They have acknowledged their responsibility to operate safely and legally. I’m confident that, working together as partners in safety, we can continue to safely integrate this burgeoning technology into the nation’s aviation system.

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