Sara and Josh Talk About Drone Chutes
Last week, the Wiley Rein Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) team attended the annual UAS Symposium hosted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). Colorado construction company Hensel Phelps made waves during the Symposium when it received a groundbreaking waiver from the FAA’s Part 107 rules to conduct UAS operations over people, nationwide, including over open-air assemblies. Central to the FAA’s determination that the operator could achieve an equivalent level of safety was the operator’s use of a drone equipped with a parachute that is designed to deploy autonomously if the drone has a problem, in order to mitigate risk of injury to persons and property on the ground. The parachute was designed by ParaZero to operate with Hensel Phelps’ DJI Phantom 4 and is compliant with ASTM 3322-18, a new standard for UAS parachutes. ParaZero has been significantly involved in navigating the FAA’s extra-regulatory processes to allow flights over people, including through the Department of Transportation’s Integration Pilot Program (IPP) and in assisting other operators with applying for waivers similar to that recently granted to Hensel Phelps.
In this episode of Sara and Josh Talk about Drones, Wiley attorneys Sara Baxenberg and Josh Turner sit down with Avi Lozowick, Vice President of Policy & Strategy at ParaZero, to discuss the concept of drone parachutes as a safety mitigation that is shaping the future of expanded operations. Sara, Josh, and Avi discuss Parazero’s latest waiver success, its participation in the IPP, and a number of UAS policy issues, including the FAA’s flights over people Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).
To read more about what happened at the UAS Symposium and the Drone Advisory Committee meeting that followed, click here.
