How to buy uncrewed systems
A drone purchase is really a purchase of permission to fly it. Work out the operation first, then buy the aircraft that fits it.
This is the parent guide for uncrewed systems: the aircraft themselves, autonomy and flight control, ground control stations, payloads, and the service companies that fly them. Each has a guide beneath this one. The point that belongs here is the one buyers most often get backwards. The aircraft is the easy part of the decision, and the operation you intend is the hard part, because the rules attach to the operation.
Start from the operation, not the airframe
Part 107 applies to the registration, airman certification and operation of civil small unmanned aircraft systems in the United States, including eligibility to operate over people, and it does not apply to air carrier operations or to operations conducted under an exemption or under Part 91 where the operator so elects.1 Read that as a decision tree. If your work is visual line of sight with a certificated remote pilot, most of the market can serve you. If it is beyond visual line of sight, at night over people, from a moving vehicle, or with multiple aircraft under one pilot, then the constraints move to your operating approvals and only a subset of aircraft and suppliers can support the case you have to make. Ask a supplier what approvals its customers hold for the operation you want, and ask to see the aircraft-specific evidence that supported one.
Remote identification is a supplier obligation you inherit
Remote identification is in force, and drone operators required to register must operate in accordance with the rule.3 The rule sets design and production requirements for unmanned aircraft with remote identification and for broadcast modules, together with the procedures for submitting, accepting and rescinding declarations of compliance, which are records a producer submits to the FAA attesting that the requirements have been met.2 Ask whether the aircraft you are buying is a standard remote identification unmanned aircraft or needs a broadcast module. Ask for the declaration of compliance and its identifier. Ask what happens to your fleet if a producer's declaration is rescinded, because that is the supplier risk this rule created.
Procurement rules can disqualify a good aircraft
Public buyers and defence customers work under sourcing restrictions that change which aircraft are eligible regardless of capability. Ask where the airframe, the flight controller, the radios and the camera are manufactured, and where the data goes. Ask whether the supplier has been cleared under the programme your customer uses. Military and armed uncrewed aircraft are separately controlled: unmanned aerial vehicles specially designed to incorporate a defense article are enumerated on the munitions list, along with aircraft carrying defense articles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and command and control.4 Ask which regime your intended configuration falls under before you plan an export.
Questions that sort suppliers
Ask for the declaration of compliance and the aircraft's registration category. Ask which customer approvals this exact aircraft has supported. Ask where the flight data and imagery are stored, and under whose control. Ask what spares and battery supply look like twelve months after purchase.
Sources, in the order cited
- 1Electronic Code of Federal Regulations · 14 CFR Part 107, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems
- 2Electronic Code of Federal Regulations · 14 CFR Part 89, Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft
- 3Federal Aviation Administration · Remote identification of drones
- 4Electronic Code of Federal Regulations · 22 CFR Part 121, The United States Munitions List