Plans To Begin Showing News Gathered By Unmanned Aircraft Soon

The first news outlet to be granted a waiver by the FAA for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for electronic news gathering (ENG) appears to be CNN, which announced Monday that it has closed a deal with the FAA to begin using the aircraft for that purpose.

In a news release posted on the cable network's blog, CNN said it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with the FAA to advance efforts to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into newsgathering and reporting.
 
The cooperation arrangement will integrate efforts from CNN's existing research partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Coordination between and among CNN, GTRI and the FAA has already begun. The FAA will use data collected from this initiative to formulate a framework for various types of UAVs to be safely integrated into newsgathering operations.
 
"Our aim is to get beyond hobby-grade equipment and to establish what options are available and workable to produce high quality video journalism using various types of UAVs and camera setups,” said CNN Senior Vice President David Vigilante. “Our hope is that these efforts contribute to the development of a vibrant ecosystem where operators of various types and sizes can safely operate in the US airspace.”
 
“Unmanned aircraft offer news organizations significant opportunities,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We hope this agreement with CNN and the work we are doing with other news organizations and associations will help safely integrate unmanned newsgathering technology and operating procedures into the National Airspace System.”

(Image from file)

FMI: www.cnn.com, www.faa.gov