Drones/Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

WBK attorneys have been at the forefront of legal developments involving unmanned aerial systems (UAS), frequently making new law as they have helped obtain authorizations, waivers, and other approvals for their UAS clients.

We have focused on advocacy before the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation.  But, as states and localities have attempted to regulate UAS as well, our attorneys have worked on preemption and other strategies designed to minimize UAS regulation and the increasing “patchwork quilt” of requirements.  With a thorough grounding in UAS technology, we are able to bridge the gap between our clients’ needs and the frequently outdated regulatory regimes and requirements that affect them.

Our attorneys were among the first to obtain commercial UAS authorizations for operators and manufacturers from the FAA before the agency’s commercial drone rules had even been proposed. On behalf of our clients, we pushed for various provisions that became part of the new rules and, since then, have helped clients apply the new standards, obtaining waivers as necessary. We succeeded in advocating for a new form of DOT economic authorization for interstate UAS package delivery.  As DOT and the FAA move forward with implementing the historic and comprehensive drone provisions in the 2018 FAA Reauthorization, we are well poised to help the industry formulate new rules and then apply them to take advantage of all the new possibilities this emerging technology offers.