Also known as: airspaces · air space
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The space extending upward from the surface of land to the extent necessary for the owner or possessor to have reasonable use and enjoyment of the incidents of ownership or possession.
State officers arranged a fixed-wing flight at 1,000 feet over Percy's fenced backyard. Using only the naked eye, they spotted medication cartons near the garage. Percy moved to suppress the observation as an unconstitutional search of curtilage. The court denied the motion because the vantage point was one any member of the public could lawfully occupy.
Penn Central owned Grand Central Terminal and sought to build above it. New York City's landmarks law prevented construction in the superjacent airspace. The owners claimed the restriction took their air rights. The Court held that the transferable development rights and remaining parcel value prevented a taking.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Nimbus flew camera drones at very low altitude over Ortiz's walled backyard despite posted no-drone signs. Ortiz had never consented. She sued for trespass to land. The court found liability because the drones entered the immediate airspace Ortiz controlled as part of her property.
Lucas purchased beachfront lots for residential development. A new state law barred all construction on the parcels. Lucas claimed the regulation took his property, including rights to use the airspace above it. The Court held that a regulation denying all economically beneficial use requires compensation.
Coal companies challenged a statute requiring them to leave support pillars to prevent surface subsidence. The regulation limited extraction beneath certain structures. The companies argued it took their property interests, including associated air rights. The Court upheld the law as a valid exercise of police power protecting public safety.
The United States flew military aircraft at low altitudes over Causby's chicken farm. The noise and vibration destroyed the use of the property for raising poultry. Causby sued for a taking of the airspace immediately above the land. The Court recognized that landowners own the immediate reaches of the airspace to the extent they can occupy or use it.
A landowner owns only the airspace extending upward to the extent necessary for reasonable use and enjoyment of the land. Beyond that immediate reach, navigable airspace belongs to the public.
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Observation from a fixed-wing aircraft flying in lawful public airspace at altitudes such as 1,000 feet using only the naked eye is not a search. Any member of the public in the same airspace could have seen the same things.
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Yes. Drones flown at very low altitude into the immediate airspace above an enclosed backyard enter land the owner controls to the extent reasonably usable. Intentional flights after notice of objection satisfy the elements of trespass.
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A successor who learns of an encroaching structure such as sign posts extending into neighboring airspace and fails to remove it commits a new trespass by allowing the condition to remain.
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…building cantilevered above the terminal. The proposed building would have been 55 stories high and would have occupied the air space above the terminal. The Commission rejected the proposal, finding that the construction of the building would destroy the terminal's historic and aesthetic features. Appellants then…