Joel E. Roberson is a Partner and Jennifer M. Nowak is
an Associate in our
Washington, D.C., office.
In a new Interim Final Rule (IFR) published on
Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires each
unmanned aircraft (UA) to display its registration number on the
exterior of the aircraft effective Feb. 25, 2019. FAA cited
security concerns as a basis for moving directly to a final
rule.
Federal law and regulations currently require that small
unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operating in the National Airspace
must be registered with the FAA and the UA must be marked
with a registration number. FAA's current small UAS
marking requirements in 14 C.F.R. § 48.205 direct UAS
operators to ensure that the FAA registration number is affixed to,
or marked on, their UAs in a way that is accessible and legible
upon inspection. Given the very small size of some UAs, the rules
allow for the registration number to be contained in an enclosed
compartment, such
