No sir it became mandatory in 2018 looks like.
Just going off of this:
In December 2015 the FAA announced that all UAVs weighing more than 250 grams flown for any purpose must be registered with the FAA
[4] and in December 2019, the FAA proposed a ruling requiring all unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to be equipped with a device to identify them citing “All UAS operating in the airspace of the United States, with very few exceptions, would be subject to the requirements of this rule".
[5][6]
en.m.wikipedia.org
The above link includes this lengthy disertation:
2015 - Present
In December 2015 the FAA announced that all UAVs weighing more than 250 grams flown for any purpose must be registered with the FAA.
[4] The FAA's Interim Rule can be
accessed here. This regulation went into effect on December 21, 2015 and requires that hobby type UAV's weighing 0.25–25 kg (0.55-55 lb) needed to be registered no later than February 19, 2016.
[27] The FAA's registration portal for drones can be
accessed here.
Notable requirements of the FAA UAV registration process include:
- Effective December 21, 2015, if the UAV has never been operated in U.S. airspace (i.e. its first flight outside), eligible owners must register their UAV's prior to flight. If the UAV previously operated in U.S. airspace, it must be registered.
- In order to use the registration portal, you must be 13 years of age or older. If the owner is less than 13 years old, then a parent or other responsible person must do the FAA registration.
- Each registrant will receive a certificate of aircraft registration and a registration number and all UAV's must be marked with the assigned FAA issued registration code (a ten-character alphanumeric ID code) for the registrant.[28]
- The FAA registration requires a $5 fee and is valid for 3 years, but can be renewed for an additional 3 years at the $5 rate.[29]
The new FAA rule provides that a single registration applies to as many UAVs as an owner/operator owns or operates. Failure to register can result in civil penalties of up to $27,500 and criminal penalties which could include fines up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment for up to three years.
[30]
To show problems with the FAA process, in August, 2015 an attorney was able to get FAA approval for a commercial drone that was actually a battery powered paper airplane toy. Its controllable range is 120 feet (37 meters) and maximum flight time is 10 minutes. It is too underpowered to carry a camera.
[31]
In February 2016, the FAA established a committee to develop guidelines for regulating safe UAV flight over populated areas,
[32] to the end of allowing commercial drone operation,
[33] in response to requests from companies involved in commercial drone development such as
Amazon and
Google.
[34]In addition, during the summer of the same year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and
Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST),
Department of Transportation (DOT) released Rule Part 107, finalizing the regulation regarding the use of commercial UAS.
[35][36]
On May 19, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in ruling on Taylor v. Huerta
[37] reversed the Dec. 2015 UAV registration rule, commenting that "the FAA may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft." Specifically, the FAA’s Registration Rule for model aircraft (a/k/a drones) violates Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, and the FAA's Registration Rule to the extent it applied to model aircraft was vacated. The FAA began the process of refunding the registration fees.
On December 12, 2017, President
Donald Trumpsigned into law the immediately-effective
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, reinstating the FAA’s drone registration requirement.
[38]
On May 9, 2018, the U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced the selection of local governments from 10 states to participate in the UAS Integration Pilot Program.
[39] The City of San Diego is one of the participant selected from California with a primary project goal focusing on commercial delivery and border protection.
[40]
On September 20, 2018,
State Farm Insurance, in partnership with the
Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and
FAA Integration Pilot Program, became the first in the United States to fly a UAV 'Beyond-Visual-Line-Of-Sight' (BVLOS) and over people under an FAA Part 107 Waiver. The flight was made at the Virginia Tech's Kentland Farms outside the Blacksburg VA campus with an SenseFly eBee vehicle, Pilot-In-Command was Christian Kang, a State Farm Weather Catastrophe Claims Services employee (Part 107 & 61 pilot).
[41]
By November 27, 2019, the United States' organization for
homebuilt full-scale aircraft, the
Experimental Aircraft Association, having reached a "memorandum of understanding" nine years earlier with the US' national aeromodeling organization, the
Academy of Model Aeronautics,
[42] expressed concern over the unprecedented degree of FAA regulation of recreational model aircraft, stating that ""We see model aviation as an important pathway to manned flight," adding that "Our goal in this risk assessment process is to represent the safety concerns of our members while allowing the highest degree of freedom for legacy model aircraft, which have flown alongside us in the airspace for decades."
[43]