50-1-1. Definitions. Terms as used in this title mean:

(1) "Aeronautics," the science, art, and physics of flight. The term also means the method or act of construction, repair, or maintenance of airports, airport facilities, aircraft, and aviation facilities;

(2) "Air traffic control," a service operated by an authority under Federal Aviation Administration oversight to promote the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the United States;

(3) "Aircraft," a device that is used, intended to be used, or designed for flight in the air. The term includes any airplane, balloon, civil aircraft, drone, glider, helicopter, and public aircraft;

(4) "Aircraft dealer," any person, manufacturer, or distributor engaged in the business of buying, selling, exchanging, or acting as a broker for three or more aircraft in any twelve consecutive months, other than a business liquidation of used aircraft;

(5) "Airport," any area of land or water used, or intended to be used, for landing and take-off of aircraft, and any appurtenant area, structure, facility, or right of way to facilitate that use. The term includes any military airport, private airport, public airport, and temporary airport;

(6) "Airport authority," any regional airport authority created under this chapter;

(7) "Airport facility," any structure, mechanism, light, beacon, marker, communicating system, or other instrumentality or device used as an aid to the safe taking off and landing of aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an airport, and which is not owned or operated by the federal government;

(8) "Airport hazard," any existing or potential condition that can endanger the life or property of a user of an airport or any occupant of land in the vicinity of an airport, and which can lead to damage to or loss of airport system equipment or property or the environment;

(9) "Airport obstruction," any structure or obstacle, or use of land, that obstructs an aerial approach of an airport or is otherwise hazardous to the use of an airport by aircraft for landing or taking off;

(10) "Airport sponsor," a public agency, private owner, state entity, or other political subdivision that is associated with a public use airport facility and is a recipient of any federal airport improvement grant;

(11) "Anemometer tower," a structure, including any guy wire or accessory facility, on which an anemometer is mounted;

(12) "Aviation facility," any airport facility that supports aviation activities, including any airport, heliport, and navigational aid;

(13) "Balloon," an aircraft that is not engine-driven, is lighter than air, and sustains flight through the use of gas buoyancy or an airborne heater;

(14) "Civil aircraft," any aircraft other than a public aircraft;

(15) "Commercial purpose," an aviation activity for profit that includes flight instruction, charter, air taxi, or rental, but does not include the substitution of a commercial use stamp for regular aircraft registration for the promotion of a business or other purpose that does not involve aviation;

(16) "Commission," the South Dakota Aeronautics Commission;

(17) "Controlled airspace," any airspace of specific and defined classifications and dimensions inside of which air traffic control services are provided;

(18) "Department," the Department of Transportation;

(19) "Drone," a small unmanned aircraft system;

(20) "Heliport," an area of land, water, or a structural surface, used or intended for use as a landing and take-off area for helicopters. The term includes both public and private heliports;

(21) "Military airport," any military air base, air station, airfield, or other area, publicly or privately owned, that is designed, set aside, and operated by the state, a political subdivision of the state, or the United States, for civil or national defense, or for any federal program relating to flight, or for the operation of military aircraft, and used in the interest of the public for those purposes;

(22) "Navigational aid," any device external to an aircraft specifically intended to assist a pilot in determining the aircraft's position and safe course;

(23) "Place of business," a permanent enclosed structure at which a permanent business of bartering, trading, or selling aircraft is carried out in good faith. The term does not include any residence, tent, stand, or any other temporary structure;

(24) "Prescribed adjusted height," a height adjusted upward seventeen feet for an interstate highway, fifteen feet for any other public road, ten feet or the height of the highest mobile object that would normally traverse the road, whichever is greater, for a private road, and twenty-three feet for a railroad;

(25) "Private airport," any privately owned airport that is available for use only by the owner and the owner's invitees;

(26) "Project," any airport operated by an authority, including any real and personal property, structure, machinery, equipment, or appurtenance or facility that is part of the airport or used in connection with the airport either as a ground facility for the convenience of handling aviation equipment, passengers, or freight, or as part of any aviation or air safety operation;

(27) "Public aircraft," any aircraft, including military aircraft, used exclusively in the governmental service of any state or territory of the United States;

(28) "Public airport," any airport, whether publicly or privately owned, that is available to the public for aviation activity;

(29) "Small unmanned aircraft system" or "sUAS," any unmanned aircraft and its associated elements that is operated without the possibility of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft, and that weighs not more than fifty-five pounds, including anything that is onboard or otherwise attached to the aircraft;

(30) "Temporary airport," any airport established and set aside for the operation of aircraft for transitory or impermanent purposes.Source: SDC 1939, § 2.0101; SL 1947, ch 1, § 1; SL 1949, ch 2, §§ 1, 2; SL 1997, ch 16, § 3; SL 2004, ch 287, § 3; SL 2010, ch 227, § 1; SL 2014, ch 222, § 1; SL 2018, ch 269, § 1; SL 2019, ch 203, § 1.