In an attempt to bring order to increasingly chaotic skies, the Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday proposed long-awaited rules on the commercial use of small drones, requiring operators to be certified, fly only during daylight and keep their aircraft in sight.
The rules appear to prohibit for now the kind of drone delivery services being explored by Amazon, Google and other companies, since the operator or assigned observers must be able to see the drone at all times without binoculars. But company officials believe the line-of-sight requirement could be relaxed in the future to accommodate delivery services.
The proposed regulations would cover only nonrecreational unmanned aircraft weighing up to 55 pounds, and would not apply to the recreational use of drones, which have become hugely popular with hobbyists and are covered by other rules. However, the F.A.A. said it was considering whether additional rules should be written to cover some uses of the smallest drones, so-called microdrones, weighing less than 4.4 pounds.
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The Aerospace Industries Association welcomed the proposed rules. The trade group’s president, Marion C. Blakey, said the rules would “pave the way for additional service organizations and industries to explore expanded operations” using drones.
Nick Wingfield contributed reporting from Seattle.
