For a future look at regulatory policy and executive agencies. For now we can think about this in terms of the activities that relevant interest groups had on the decision made by the FAA.
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This week, drone delivery company Zipline was granted Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight. That’s a major milestone in efforts to extend the range of the domestic drone industry over U.S. airspace, and Zipline isn’t the only drone operator to recently receive FAA approval.
In a series of moves in August and earlier in September, the FAA gave the same clearance to UPS subsidiary Flight Forward (which delivers packages by drone), avionics provider uAvionix, and drone inspection provider Phoenix Air Unmanned. It’s a regulatory aim that the drone companies have been working towards for a decade and will pave the way for other companies to receive streamlined approval for their own drone flights beyond the visual line of sight. It will also potentially push more consumer companies to accelerate efforts to deliver goods by unmanned aircraft, including giants such as Walmart and Amazon, the latter of which has been viewed as falling behind in its decade-long drone delivery effort.
The FAA told aviation publication Flying that the approvals will serve as the basis for “summary grants” in the future as it continues to work towards formal rulemaking and to help fast track business models similar to the ones to receive the first approvals, meaning package delivery, drone inspections, medical supplies and drone aviation system development, such as uAvionix.
