Drones: a useful business tool or playtime toy?

The question will arise again Wednesday on the floor of the Senate as lawmakers consider how much regulation is needed for a burgeoning industry that is projected to supply 2.8 million drones this year, with a bottom line rapidly approaching $1 billion in annual sales.

The risk drones pose to people and privacy has unfolded gradually as the fun-to-fly gadgets have become a must-have item for those who can afford them. Drones have buzzed planes in flight, endangered military aircraft and peered over the neighbor’s hedges with mini video cameras.

The counterbalance to drones as a hobby is a multitude of commercial uses as mapping and construction tools that speed projects along and save workers from risky tasks, such as climbing cell towers for inspections. The prospect that they will be used for package deliveries is on the drawing board.

As the technology moves at warp speed, state and federal lawmakers and regulators have sprinted to keep up. Calculating the correct dose of regulation to rein in the exuberant hobbyist without stifling commercial use or industry growth has been the challenge at the Federal Aviation Administration and on Capitol Hill.

Drone “technology is developing rapidly, much faster than our country’s capacity to develop the necessary regulations,” Brian Wynne, president and chief executive of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, told the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship last week.

The FAA’s new drone registration program has recorded 400,000 drone owners, and the agency’s B4UFly app continues its effort to educate operators about the rules for flying them. Now the Senate will consider directing the FAA to do more, including requiring an online test for drone operators and requiring manufacturers to install uniform safety features.

The Senate, in a larger bill that would renew authorization for the FAA, also wants to provide funding for better drone enforcement and clarify the role of state and local lawmakers who have stepped in with their own laws.

Giving the FAA supremacy to dictate drone regulations would give manufacturers and companies that want to use drones for deliveries a single agency for their proposals, rather than requiring state-by-state submissions.

“The patchwork of state and local laws under consideration in many jurisdictions will create additional hurdles for small businesses,” Wynne said last week.

“Industry just wants rules,” said Nancy Egan, general counsel for the drone manufacturer 3D Robotics. “People want rational rules, but the fact is that at this point they want any rules, because there are so many amazing things that can be done with a drone to make the world safer.”

The FAA this spring is expected to issue regulations covering drones weighing up to 55 pounds. The agency said there were 764 drones sighted near airplanes last year, despite current guidelines against flying drones near planes or within five miles of an airport unless the control tower has been contacted first. Drones also are supposed to fly below 400 feet, stay away from stadiums and remain in sight of the operator.

There are industry concerns that lawmakers, eager to corral the handful of hobbyists who misuse their drones, will inhibit their development and use.

“We must allow our innovators to fully realize drones’ potential as a truly life-changing technology,” said Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association, a trade group. “We will continue to work with members of Congress to ensure that the FAA adopts rules that allow small businesses to get the maximum benefits from drone technology.”

Egan worries that the Senate bill will require the FAA to begin its regulatory process anew.

“My concern with the Senate bill is that it ignores what the FAA has already done,” Egan said. “It essentially says, ‘FAA, you need to start over.’ ”

She co-chairs an FAA panel working on regulations specific to drone flights over people who have no relationship with the drone operator.

“What the FAA’s already studied, and taken public comment on and considered in depth, is what kind of flight is safe,” she said. “I’m not sure why we’re starting over.”

The Washington Post · Ashley Halsey III