What’s next for drone regulation in 2022?  A new report from Drone Industry Insights says the commercial industry can expect progress globally.

DRONEII Editor Ed Alvarado writes that around the world, drone regulations – and the regulatory framework – are evolving rapidly.  “This is a very welcome development given that the drone industry sees this as the most important driving factor.
writes Alvarado.

The movement on drone regulation in 2022 is global.  In Korea, significant movement towards urban air mobility is underway: continuing the progress made this year with trial flights and the government committment to an early implementation of passenger VTOL aircraft.  In the United States, the FAA is on the cusp of defining rules for flight Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) after establishing the BVLOS ARC this year.  In Brazil, the government is simplifying drone registration: in China, officials are publishing a new, risk-based regulation framework.  Japan will finalize registration and BVLOS flight standards.

These developments signal progress towards global drone integration and an expansion of commercial drone operations.  And, writes Alvarado, taken together these global developments signal that the drone industry is getting closer to reaching its potential and scale.

And all of this does not even begin to cover increasingly-important topics like certification, UTM-specific developments in various countries, or the evolution risk-assessment processes such as SORA. In other words, the regulatory mechanisms for the drone industry have continued to evolve rapidly. The latest drone regulations have taken crucial strides towards more BVLOS operations, operations over people, and operations at night, so we are rapidly approaching a time when most of the legislation necessary for large-scale drone operations will be in place.

Read more from Drone Industry Insights: a regulation timeline from 2016, report on top drone manufacturers, the drone industry barometer, and the drone market from 2020 – 2025.