U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approves USAA’s drone petition

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) announced this week that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the USAA’s petition to conduct research and development on its new unmanned aircraft system program to better serve its members, especially after catastrophes.

Behind the controls of USAA’s drone is Kathleen Swain, who has been the leader of the drone program from the property and casualty division for the past year and who will guide it forward, the association said in a media release. Swain earned an aviator’s license while still in her teens, then went on to fly commercially and become an FAA-certified flight/ground instructor with 2,000 hours of flight time. She eventually took a position as a contract instructor pilot for the Air Force at Holloman Air Force Base.

For the past year, Swain has been working with Texas A&M University’s Robotocists Without Borders to research and develop how to effectively put the UAS to work for members, the release said. She also observed and assisted in the use of unmanned aircraft technology after the Oso, Washington, mudslides in 2014.

Related: Deadly Washington state mudslide highlights lack of national landslide tracking, maps

“Our members see USAA using technology to help them and their families,” says Swain, a former claims adjuster and claims manager at USAA. “And I think they’ll see the drone technology as another extension of that. It will make the claims process smoother and more efficient for them.”

Last October, USAA petitioned the FAA for an exemption that would allow the testing of drones for scenarios such as the Black Forest Fire in Colorado in 2013. “Family members could only wait during the nine long days following evacuation orders for last year’s Black Forest Fire,” the USAA said in October 2014. “From hotel rooms and emergency shelters, USAA members scoured news reports for any shred of information about their homes.”

‎The USAA said in the statement last October that the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International has called drones a “transformative technology” in the fields of security, law enforcement, catastrophe operations and aerial imagery and mapping. However, the commercial use of drones over U.S. land and water has been greatly restricted by the FAA, the USAA reported.

The FAA requires certificates of authorization for drones to safely integrate them into national airspace. As of last year, most of those certificates have been issued to government agencies and universities for research purposes, but also to major organizations like BP Alaska and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Related: Insured damage from Black Forest Fire at $292.8 million

Industry experts believe that the “idea of using drones to inspect damage is as feasible as it is practical,” according to dronelife.com writer Andrew Amato.

Added Swain: “We believe this research can lead to safer, quicker and more economical claims service for our members and their communities. This research could lead to industry breakthroughs that help make an extremely difficult time for people a little easier.”