FAA authorises Zipline and Wing for BVLOS operations in Dallas

 The FAA has authorised Zipline and Wing to operate commercial drone flights without visual observers in the same Dallas-area airspace, in a first for US aviation.

The authorisations allow the companies to deliver packages while keeping their drones separated using unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) technology. In this system, the operators manage the airspace with FAA safety oversight.

Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, CEO and co-founder of Zipline said: “This approval of Zipline’s UTM system lifts up the entire industry. We’ve been able to leverage our expertise and learnings from flying 80m commercial autonomous miles, to make the entire industry safer, scalable and more efficient. Millions of Americans will soon be able to safely get fast, convenient, instant delivery of the products they need when they need them 10x as fast, for half the cost, and with zero emissions.”

This move away from traditional operations when the pilot must always be able to see the aircraft, are thanks to new advancements in air traffic technology and procedures.

Using UTM services, companies can share data and planned flight routes with other authorised airspace users. This allows the operators to safely organise and manage drone flights around each other in shared airspace. All flights occur below 400ft (121m) altitude and away from any crewed aircraft. 

The FAA expects initial flights using UTM services will begin in August and is issuing more authorisations in the Dallas area soon.

This news comes as the FAA works to release the Normalizing UAS BVLOS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which would enable drone operators to expand operations while maintaining the same high level of safety as traditional aviation. The agency said it is on track to release the NPRM this year, following Congressional support in the recent FAA reauthorisation.

Rinaudo Cliffton added: “This year 5 billion instant deliveries will be made, via on-demand apps, in the U.S. alone, and that doesn’t even include the billions of packages that FedEx, UPS and Amazon will also deliver. We at Zipline believe there’s actually global demand for tens of billions of instant deliveries per year but there hasn’t been a system in place to do that — until now.”