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883 

Federal Aviation Administration, DOT 

§ 48.20 

Subpart B—Certificates of Aircraft 

Registration for Small Unmanned Aircraft 

48.100

Registration: Small unmanned air-

craft operated for any purpose other than 
exclusively limited recreational oper-
ations. 

48.105

Registration: Small unmanned air-

craft intended exclusively for limited 
recreational operations. 

48.110

Application. 

48.115

Requirement to maintain current in-

formation. 

48.120

Invalid registration. 

48.125

Foreign civil aircraft. 

Subpart C—Aircraft Marking 

48.200

General. 

48.205

Display and location of unique identi-

fier. 

A

UTHORITY

: 49 U.S.C. 106(f), 106(g), 40101, 

40103, 40113–40114, 41703, 44101–44103, 44105– 
44106, 44110–44113, 44809(f), 45302, 45305, 46104, 
46301, 46306. 

S

OURCE

: Doc. No. FAA–2015–7396; Amdt. No. 

48–1; 80 FR 78645, Dec. 16, 2015, unless other-
wise noted. 

Subpart A—General 

§ 48.1

Applicability. 

(a) This part provides registration 

and identification requirements for 
small unmanned aircraft that are part 
of a small unmanned aircraft system as 
defined in § 1.1 of this chapter. 

(b) Small unmanned aircraft eligible 

for registration in the United States 
must be registered and identified in ac-
cordance with either: 

(1) The registration and identifica-

tion requirements in this part; or 

(2) The registration requirements in 

part 47 and the identification and reg-
istration marking requirements in sub-
parts A and C of part 45. 

(c) Small unmanned aircraft intended 

to be operated outside of the territorial 
airspace of the United States, or reg-
istered through a trust or voting trust, 
must be registered in accordance with 
subparts A and B of part 47 and satisfy 
the identification and registration 
marking requirements of subparts A 
and C of part 45. 

§ 48.5

[Reserved] 

§ 48.10

Definitions. 

For purposes of this part, the fol-

lowing definitions apply: 

Citizen of the United States or U.S. cit-

izen means one of the following: 

(1) An individual who is a citizen of 

the United States or one of its posses-
sions. 

(2) A partnership each of whose part-

ners is an individual who is a citizen of 
the United States. 

(3) A corporation or association orga-

nized under the laws of the United 
States or a State, the District of Co-
lumbia, or a territory or possession of 
the United States, of which the presi-
dent and at least two-thirds of the 
board of directors and other managing 
officers are citizens of the United 
States, which is under the actual con-
trol of citizens of the United States, 
and in which at least 75 percent of the 
voting interest is owned or controlled 
by persons that are citizens of the 
United States. 

Registry  means the FAA, Civil Avia-

tion Registry, Aircraft Registration 
Branch. 

Resident alien means an individual 

citizen of a foreign country lawfully 
admitted for permanent residence in 
the United States as an immigrant in 
conformity with the regulations of the 
Department of Homeland Security (8 
CFR Chapter 1). 

§ 48.15

Requirement to register. 

No person may operate a small un-

manned aircraft that is eligible for reg-
istration under 49 U.S.C. 44101–44103 un-
less one of the following criteria has 
been satisfied: 

(a) The owner has registered and 

marked the aircraft in accordance with 
this part; 

(b) The aircraft is operated exclu-

sively in compliance with 49 U.S.C. 
44809 and weighs 0.55 pounds or less on 
takeoff, including everything that is on 
board or otherwise attached to the air-
craft; or 

(c) The aircraft is an aircraft of the 

Armed Forces of the United States. 

[Doc. No. FAA–2015–7396; Amdt. No. 48–1; 80 
FR 78645, Dec. 16, 2015, as amended by Doc. 
No. FAA–2019–1100; Amdt. No. 48–3; 86 FR 
4504, Jan. 15, 2021] 

§ 48.20

Eligibility for registration. 

A small unmanned aircraft may be 

registered under 49 U.S.C. 44103 and 
under this part only when the aircraft 

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