Module 4.3 - UNSY 501 

As a consultant for Acme Airborne Analysis Group assessing the impacts of We Sell Anything real estate using quad rotor unmanned aerial system (UAS) for a marketing campaign of local lakefront property, I must consider the legal, ethical, and technical challenges associated with the operation. The major consideration for the application of UAS in this capacity will be the legal aspect. The majority of ethical issues that are raised with UAS are in reference to military and law enforcement implementations. The technical considerations are also not a large issue with the current capabilities and continual development of UAS technology. That leaves the only serious considerations for implementation as the legal feasibility. For information on the legal possibilities of using UAS to obtain high resolution images of real estate properties, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the legal authority.

There is one main question to consider in respect to the legal issues, can a private company use a UAS for the purposes of real estate marketing? While there are not any specific regulations in regards to the use a UAS in this capacity, the current FAA regulations and decisions can provide us with more than enough information to determine the legality of We Sell Anything using UAS. The regulations on UAS use in U.S. airspace are still in flux and not well defined, but in February 2015 the FAA proposed regulations for UAS that do not meet the criteria for Section 336 of Public Law 112-95 that would allow routine use of UAS and accommodate future innovations (FAA 2015). However, the proposal has not yet been approved which leaves UAS without any specific regulations in regards to commercial usage. However, commercial entities can petition for exemption under Section 333 to be allow to use UAS in non-recreational capacities prior to the approval of the FAA proposal (FAA 2015). Under Section 333, the Secretary of Transportation can determine whether airworthiness requirements are necessary for certain low-risk situations (FAA 2015). In relative terms, the use of UAS to obtain high resolution images of lakefront property should qualify as low risk. Also, just last week the FAA approved Measure to use a fleet of over 300 small UAS for the purposes of aerial data acquisition (Lufkin 2015). I believe real estate images would also qualify as aerial data acquisition, and We Sell Anything would not likely need nearly 300 UAS to fulfill their needs.

With looking at all of the legal, ethical, and technical considerations, I think it is completely feasible for We Sell Anything to use UAS in their real estate marketing campaign of local lakefront property. We Sell Anything should send a petition for exemption under Section 333 to the FAA and I believe that the FAA would approve the exemption. They would then be able to purchase one or more of any number or quad rotor UAS models to accomplish the collection of high definition imagery of their lakefront properties.

References

Federal Aviation Administration. (2015). Fact Sheet – Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=18297

Lufkin, B. (2015). The FAA is Allowing a Company to Fly a Massive Fleet of 300 Drones. Gizmodo. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-allowing-a-company-to-fly-a-massive-fleet-of-1728207486