WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. administration on Wednesday launched an initiative to safely test and validate advanced operations for drones across the country.
The White House said President Donald Trump signed a directive requiring Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to create a pilot program allowing state and local governments to apply to establish "innovation zones" where far-reaching drone operations would be permitted.
The program, titled the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program, is aimed at speeding up the integration of drones into the country's national airspace while reducing risks to public safety and security.
Under the program, a regulatory framework involving state, local and tribal governments will be developed to allow more complex low-altitude safe operations while speeding up approval of operations that currently require special authorizations.
"America's skies are changing -- UAS now outnumber manned aircraft, which had dominated our airspace since World War II," said Michael Kratsios, deputy assistant to the president at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
"Our regulatory framework has not kept pace with this change," he added.
Chao said in the statement that "Drones are proving to be especially valuable in emergency situations, including assessing damage from natural disasters such as the recent hurricanes and the wildfires in California."
The potential economic benefit of integrated unmanned aerial systems into U.S. national airspace is estimated to equal up to 82 billion U.S. dollars and create up to 100,000 jobs, according to the statement from the Transportation Department website.
The U.S. administration has ruled the country's "navigable airspace" since early last century, and the proliferation of low-flying quadcopters and other unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, has raised questions about what powers local governments have over their communities.
