Talk of unmanned cargo aircraft has floated through the industry for the past few years.
And, although the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not yet highlighted the cargo role, it has started searching for six sites that can be used for testing unmanned commercial aircraft. Congress has also asked the FAA to aim for a full integration of drones into the US aviation landscape by 2015.
According to an FAA press release, the goal of the test sites is to allow for commercial unmanned aircraft operations, while developing a regulatory framework to govern these future commercial uses. Unmanned systems are currently used in law enforcement, firefighting and wildlife monitoring.
