If Federal Aviation Administration (that is primarily responsible for the advancement, safety and regulation of civil aviation, as well as overseeing the development of the air traffic control) were to give approval today to drones that are 55 pounds and below in agriculture, moviemaking, and pipeline and power line inspection, there would be thousands operating before the sun sets.

The FAA plans to release draft regulation to marry today’s airspace with tomorrow’s drones. The final regulations are due in September 2015, but most drone watchers don’t expect the FAA to deliver on time.

In opinion of Mark Segal – founder of SkyPan International – it is very slow, understaffed and has very under-experienced people who change positions too fast, so they need constant re-education. The agency admits that crafting regulations is difficult, and that’s without taking into account the inevitable barrage of contentious public comments from skeptics and advocates. Less Dorr – FAA spokesman says that FAA is trying to write regulations for a rapidly evolving technology and trying to keep today’s extremely high safety level in the most complex, busy airspace in the world.

Add to that the general feeling that the FAA is illequipped to enforce the regulations it does produce. “They don’t have a policeman on every corner” says Ladd Sanger, a lawyer who represented dozens of clients involved in air crashes.   How long will we be waiting for the sky full of drones? The answer may surprise us all.