Registration for Drones

300,000 Drones Registered in 30 Days 

     The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has told use that over 300,000 drones were registered within the first 30 days. The registration started on December 21, 2015 and covered remote controlled flying toys and cameras. Any unmanned aircraft (drones) that weighed between 250g - 25kg had to be registered and the pilots had to be 13 and up.

     Registering your drone coasts $5 unless you registered it before January 21, 2016. Another exception to this $5 payment was if you owned a drone before December 21, then you have until February 19, 2016 to register it. Once you register your drone, you have to mark it with your registration number and every three years you must register your drone again.

    

     Registering your drone is for a good reason. It allows the government to track your drone so that they know if you did anything illegal with it and also so that they know, if something happens, that you didn't do it. For instance, in December a drone almost hit a skier, so if you registered your drone, the police would know that that drone wasn't yours.

 

     Another part of registering your drone is giving the FAA information about the owner of the drone. You need to give them your name, address, and email address. This, the FAA says, will help them even further to track drones back to there owners.

 

     Over 1 million drones were expected to be sold in December, which means that only 1/3 of them have been registered.

Amazon Drones

Drones For Amazon

Amazon is still developing drones for its Amazon Prime program. They have multiple prototypes because there is a lot of different weather in America. For instance, rainy Florida weather to hot, dry Arizona weather, and snowy weather in multiple other states. These drones will also have a "sense-and-avoid" technology which means that the drone can avoid obstacles like trees, power lines, and other houses. The drones will deliver your package, if you are not home, on your lawn/front yard but Amazon hasn't found a way to do this if you live in an apartment.

    

     Another thing is, what if someone try's to stop the drone with the package? Well, Misener (Amazons Vice President) says that he isn't worried about that and hopes that drones carrying packages will be as common as a delivery truck.

Lily the Selfie Drone

$34 million in Pre-Order for a Drone

     Lily is the name of a new drone planned to come out in the summer. The most interesting thing about this drone is that it follows you around video taping you in full 1080p (HD) and taking 12-megapixel pictures. It doesn't have a remote control either, you just throw it into the air and it starts flying around on its own. It will stay 5-50 feet away from you and keep the camera aimed on you the whole time. It knows were you are because you will have a tracking device on you that can also stop the drone and make it hover if you think that it will crash into something. It has a battery life of 20 minutes, weighs 2.8 pounds, can fly 25mph, and is about as thick as a textbook. The pre-order price is $799 and the price when it comes out will be $999.