Entertainment industry unmanned aircraft systems, otherwise known as drones, may be coming to airspace near you.

That's the hope of seven aerial photo and video production companies that have asked permission from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration to fly the automated craft over American skies -- a commercial first, if the regulatory agency allows it.

The entertainment companies would actually need to be granted exemptions from current flying restrictions, a decision FAA officials say they will make after weighing the potential economic benefit of allowing the overhead operations with the need to address safety concerns and mitigate against the risk of hazards, according to an FAA news release.

The firms are asking the agency to be made exempt from regulations that address general flight rules, pilot certificate requirements, manuals, maintenance and equipment mandates.

The outfits also seek relief from airworthiness certification requirements, as allowed under Section 333, which states certain airworthiness requirements can be waived to let specific UAS fly safely in narrowly-defined, controlled and low-risk situations.

The the exemption requests were supported by the the Motion Picture Association of America, on behalf of their member production companies.

The FAA in its news release confirmed all the firms that filed the petitions are "independent aerial cinematography professionals who collectively developed the exemption requests as a requirement to satisfy the safety and public interest concerns of the FAA, MPAA and the public at large."

The FAA reports it has worked for months to implement the provisions of Section 333 of its Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 and planning how to integrate drones generally into U.S. Skies, before working up a more focused rule for small drones.

Companies from the precision agriculture, power line and pipeline inspection and the oil and gas flare stack inspection industries have also approached the FAA about using U.S. airspace for their own projects and may also be preparing to file exemption requests.

In order to win an exemption, a company must show its drone operations "will not adversely affect safety, or provide at least an equal level of safety to the rules from which they seek the exemption," the FAA explained in a statement.

The requesting companies would ultimately need to demonstrate why gaining a rule would be in the public interest.

Certificates of Waiver or Authorization are currently available to public entities including law enforcement, firefighting, border patrol, disaster relief, search and rescue, military training and other government operational missions that want to fly drones in civil airspace.

Commercial operations are authorized on a case-by-case basis.