Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on FreightWaves.com.

Cargo airline Ameriflight said Tuesday it received approval from the FAA to operate drones, making it the first existing Part 135 cargo airline — carriers that operate under nonscheduled air service — to receive such an exemption.

The newly granted exemption allows Ameriflight to conduct unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations under its current Part 119 Air Carrier Certificate for Part 135 operations. The company also said that regulators approved the addition of the Matternet M2 to Ameriflight’s fleet, enabling the launch of the first fully operational, large-scale drone operation in the U.S.

Through its partnership with Matternet, Ameriflight intends to operate the Matternet M2 drone for commercial delivery, focusing on health care and e-commerce deliveries to customers located in dense urban and suburban environments across the country. Ameriflight will deploy the M2 fleet of drones using Matternet’s software platform from a central remote network operations center, allowing the company to safely expand its network while maintaining the highest level of pilot operator supervision and flexibility.

Ameriflight intends to operate its uncrewed aircraft as a supplement to its crewed operations, not replacing the current flying operation, aircraft or pilots.

“Adding this state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly aircraft and launching our UAS division allows us to expand our service offerings to off-airport alternative sites for time-sensitive small package needs,” said Ameriflight President and CEO Alan Rusinowitz. “We’re looking forward to launching our first M2 flights very soon, and, as we move forward into future flight, developing additional areas of drone delivery.”

Medical samples and small batch pharmaceuticals will be the initial cargo for the M2. In addition to health care, Matternet is expanding into e-commerce, where drone delivery can enable ultra-fast delivery of small packages.

“The approval to add drones to our operation positions Ameriflight, once again, at the forefront of innovation in the aviation industry. Moving forward with the future of our newly operative UAS division allows us to expand into a largely untapped delivery market with a lot of room for speed and safety logistic improvements,” said Ameriflight owner and Chairman Jim Martell. 

“This partnership enables us to offer our customers turnkey access to fast and reliable on-demand delivery capabilities today. This is not a test program or a future deployment concept — this is the real, scalable, and safe drone-based solution that customers are looking for,” said Andreas Raptopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Matternet.

For more coverage on cargo drones, go to FreightWaves.

The post Ameriflight Gets FAA OK for Drone Operation appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Since the completion of the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance’s (NUAIR) 50-mile drone testing corridor in 2019, the state of New York has conducted drone integration evaluations for the FAA, flown routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) tests, and even experimented with 5G technology.

New York’s drone corridor has been a major boon for the state’s wider aviation industry and the development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies—so much so that its Tri-State area neighbor is planning to build its own.

On Thursday, the National Aerospace Research and Technology Park (NARTP), a collection of research and development facilities located just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, announced an agreement to develop a UAS and AAM testing corridor backed by two Department of Defense entities. Once complete, the corridor could foster emerging aviation technologies such as drones and air taxis.

The project is being supported by the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM), a unit of the DOD that provides the agency with air, land, and sea transportation, and the Air Mobility Command (AMC), the air component of USTRANSCOM and a major command of the U.S. Air Force.

The Atlantic County Economic Alliance (ACEA) will provide a portion of the corridor’s funding through a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant.

The cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between NARTP, USTRANSCOM, and AMC calls for the entities to build a prototype UAS and AAM corridor connecting New Jersey’s Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base, a distance of about 78 miles.

“This agreement is a significant accomplishment and will demonstrate the NARTP’s ability to facilitate aviation research,” said NARTP board chairman Mark Loeben, a retired Air Force major general. “USTRANSCOM and AMC are major players in aviation. Their interest in working with the NARTP helps to advance both the development of the NARTP and the emerging aviation industry in New Jersey’s Atlantic County.”

The NARTP and other parties have yet to produce a timeline for the New Jersey-Delaware corridor. But they expect the airspace to be “dual use,” facilitating launching and landing of civilian aircraft from non-DOD sites alongside UAS and AAM testing and experimentation.

Once established, the corridor will be used to demonstrate, develop, and evaluate military, commercial, academic, and federally backed UAS and AAM technology. NARTP said, for example, that it’s looking to enable strategic airlift capabilities for the Air Force.

In the meantime, the center has plenty more to do.

“The CRADA is an outcome of the NARTP’s work with AMC and FAA on the Airfield Autonomy Initiative (AAI),” said NARTP president Howard Kyle, “that involves the testing and demonstration of automated lawn mowing, foreign object debris sweeping, and perimeter patrol in both military and civilian airfield environments.”

The NARTP in February earned a Congressional grant for the AAI program, which aims to create the world’s first airfield-specific autonomous command and control systems. The FAA, Air Force, ACEA, and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences are all involved.

One month earlier, the center received $2 million from a federal spending bill to contract with autonomous vehicle manufacturers, which it hopes will enable driverless airport maintenance such as clearing runways and mowing grass. NARTP is adjoined to Atlantic City International Airport (KACY). 

It’s also adjacent to the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center. There, NARTP tenants are researching safety, testing, certification, and regulatory standards for UAS and AAM. And the center is working with Deloitte to launch an early AAM service in New Jersey.

The post DOD Officials Approve East Coast UAS and AAM Test Corridor appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In the 1940s, Russian-born engineer Igor Sikorsky designed the R-4, the first large-scale, mass-produced helicopter in history. Shortly after Sikorsky became the first American to successfully fly a helicopter of his own design, Frank Piasecki became the second, flying his PV-2 in 1943.

Today, both men’s legacies live on: The former’s Sikorsky Aircraft is now the vertical lift subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, while the latter’s Piasecki Aircraft Corp. (PiAC) continues to manufacture rotorcraft and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft.

This week, one firm’s former manufacturing plant is on the path to become the other’s state-of-the-art facility. PiAC on Wednesday announced it has acquired Sikorsky’s 219,000-square-foot Coatesville, Pennsylvania center—which closed in 2022—and plans to turn it into a research, development, and testing site for VTOL aircraft, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and other emerging aviation technologies.

More specifically, PiAC will use the Coatesville facility to execute several ongoing projects. Those include production and testing of the company’s forthcoming PA-890 aircraft, a slowed-rotor, winged compound electric VTOL (eVTOL) helicopter. PA-890, when completed, would be the world’s first zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell rotorcraft.

The facility is slated to reopen this fall and expected to attract around 400 workers within five years.

“We chose to expand our development capabilities in the Delaware Valley because of its deep roots within the helicopter industry, its highly talented workforce, and its robust supplier network,” said PiAC CEO John Piasecki, Frank Piasecki’s son, who now leads the company alongside brother and chief technology officer Fred Piasecki. “PiAC is committed to creating local jobs by fostering cutting-edge innovation, and we’re excited to support a community that has long prided itself on delivering aviation excellence.”

PiAC’s use of the Coatesville center—which contains facilities for engineering development, aircraft assembly, paint and finishing, flight testing, and delivery—has the support of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former governor Tom Wolf, Sen. Robert Casey, Rep. Chrissy Houlihan, and the local Chester County Economic Development Council.

Much of the site’s resources appear to be concentrated on the PA-890, the production of which is being supported in part by the U.S. Air Force. Currently, PiAC is working with partner ZeroAvia to incorporate its High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (HTPEM) hydrogen fuel cell tech into PA-890 and other VTOL applications.

Ultimately, the eVTOL is expected to reduce noise and cut direct operating costs in half compared to today’s fossil-fuel-burning turbine helicopters. Its applications will include emergency medical services, on-demand logistics, personnel air transport, and other commercial use cases. The aircraft is expected to begin crewed flight tests later this year.

“It’s incredibly exciting to see a company like (PiAC), a longtime aviation industry innovator, continue their commitment to developing new technologies like the PA-890 hydrogen fuel cell-powered helicopter right here in PA’s sixth district,” said Houlihan. “These advancements have the potential to transform vertical lift flight and help eliminate carbon emissions.”

In addition to supporting work on PA-890, the Coatesville facility will progress other PiAC projects such as the Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES), a multi-use, tilt-ducted VTOL aircraft that can fly crewed or uncrewed missions.

ARES was first developed with Lockheed Martin and is funded by the Air Force, the U.S. Army, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). PiAC is now working with Honeywell on a triplex fly-by-wire flight control system, which it hopes will enable ARES flight testing later this year.

Another PiAC project in development is Adaptive Digital Automated Pilotage Technology (ADAPT), a flight control software package designed to improve safety and affordability. The intelligent system automatically reallocates commands between redundant control effectors—devices that generate control forces or moments on the aircraft—to respond to changes in flight, such as aircraft damage or reduced performance.

After the Coatesville center is up and running, PiAC will continue to conduct ground testing, design and engineering operations out of its current facility in nearby Essington. At the moment, the firm has no plans for a full relocation.

The post Longtime Rotorcraft and UAV Developer Acquires Former Sikorsky Plant appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When you hear the words “black swan,” you probably think of the award-winning Natalie Portman movie. But the phrase originated centuries ago as a metaphor for events thought to be impossible, or “black swan events.”

As it turns out, however, black swans actually exist, which gives the symbol new meaning: the pursuit of feats that are rare but not impossible.

That’s exactly the mindset of brothers Konstantin and Svilen Rangelov, the co-founders of Bulgaria-based drone cargo airline Dronamics. Last week, the firm completed the successful first flight of its flagship Black Swan aircraft near Bulgaria’s Balchik Airport (LBWB), flown remotely by two commercial airline pilots.

Now, the bearded brothers, who vowed to stop shaving until Black Swan’s first flight, have finally shed the biggest concerns they had about their technology—and their beards.

“Since the day we first imagined what the Black Swan aircraft could look like, we’ve worked towards this flight,” said Konstantin Rangelov, Dronamics CTO. “Today we’ve made history and are proud to have demonstrated the validity of our drone technology.”

The flight, spanning 16 miles and lasting a little more than 10 minutes, won’t be enough to enable a full launch for Dronamics, which is targeting commercial flights in Europe later this year. But with the firm moving steadily through European Union certification of Black Swan, the test served as a partial validation of its technology, which could swing the pendulum in its favor.

“It’s taken an enormous amount of hard work, belief, and drive to prove that what we envisioned works,” said Svilen Rangelov, the firm’s CEO. “We can now focus on the next step, the rollout of our commercial operations, and we couldn’t be more excited.”

While existing cargo airlines regularly carry several tons of payload, that’s not what Dronamics is about. Nor is it attempting to enter the crowded last-mile delivery space, which has been the focus for most drone startups. Rather, Black Swan is designed to stand in for delivery vans.

The aircraft’s maximum payload of 770 pounds places it in line with middle-mile ground transportation. And with a range of more than 1,500 miles, it’ll be able to cover the distance between Chicago and Los Angeles or any two points in mainland Europe. The drone also has a capacity of 125 cubic feet, similar to that of a minivan.

With Black Swan, Dronamics is promising to halve overall costs, reduce delivery times by up to 80 percent, and remove up to 60 percent of emissions compared to other modes of transport, including air freight. Flying within the firm’s network of Droneports, it will initially complete time-sensitive deliveries in industries such as e-commerce, health care, perishables, engineering, and mining.

The company is able to bring down the cost of those trips in part by removing pilots from the aircraft, allowing it to offer deliveries for less than $2.50 per pound—up to 50 percent less than existing same-day air cargo services. However, Black Swan can be flown fully or semi-autonomously.

With last week’s maiden voyage in the books, Dronamics appears to be well positioned for its planned commercial launch later this year: At last year’s European Business Aviation Convention and Expo trade show in Switzerland, the firm announced it had received an EU light UAS operator certificate, the first for a drone cargo airline.

Awarded by Transport Malta Civil Aviation Directorate (TM – CAD), the license allows Dronamics to self-authorize flights across EU member states—including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, which are some of the most regulated in unmanned aviation. Malta is slated as the firm’s base for European operations and, along with Italy, the site of its first commercial flights.

Now, Dronamics is preparing to scale up Black Swan. When that time comes, the firm will leverage the mass production partnerships it signed last year with Cotesa Holdings in Europe and Quickstep in Australia, as well as the $40 million it raised in pre-Series A funding this past February. Laying the groundwork for a potential Series A round later this year, the raise included participation by investors and venture capital funds from 12 countries.

The company also has a few more partnerships with an eye toward the future. Its agreements with Zero Petroleum and Cranfield Aerospace will support fossil-free alternatives to power Black Swan’s engine, which does not rely on electric or hybrid-electric power like the aircraft of rivals Elroy Air, Drone Delivery Canada, or Destinus.

And through its participation in the Care & Equity – Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland (CAELUS) program, a consortium led by AGS Airports to develop the U.K.’s first nationwide medical drone distribution network, Dronamics will complete more Black Swan flight trials by 2024. Eventually, CAELUS hopes to enable deliveries of blood, organs, essential medicines, and more, which could make it a valuable partner moving forward.

The post Drone Cargo Airline Dronamics Completes 1st Flight of Flagship Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Much of the action in the advanced air mobility space happens behind closed doors. Unless you’re friends with an Amazon Prime Air engineer or a U.S. military flight tester, the inner workings of modern flying innovation are opaque at best.

But every now and then, innovators give us a peek behind the curtain—if you know where to look.

Welcome to Patent Pending, FLYING’s monthly roundup of the biggest drone, unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), and advanced air mobility (AAM)-related patents. Each month, we’ll save you hours of parsing through U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings by breaking down the most interesting, outlandish, and eye-popping technologies that have yet to hit the market.

A few notes: Just because a patent was published does not mean it has been granted, and there is no guarantee a company will develop patented technology. That being said, published patents can provide some insight into a firm’s research and innovation priorities—and a lot of them are just cool.

To View Patents

Here are a few published in May—to view these patents yourself, go to the U.S. Public Patent Search, enter the corresponding document ID in the search bar, and click “PN.”

Alef Aeronautics

You may not have heard of San Mateo, California-based Alef Aeronautics, but it’s a name you may see more of soon. Since 2015, the firm has been developing what it hopes will become the world’s first flying car—and a patent published this month gives us a peek behind the curtain.

Alef’s flying car, which is expected to be available for $300,000 by 2025 and has already received 440 preorders, is funny looking. But the design, if it proves capable, would be a marvel of modern engineering, allowing users to drive like a car and fly like a helicopter in the same trip.

The vehicle looks like the love child of a typical car and a cheese grater, with a vented body that houses eight propellers. At its center is a capsule where the pilot sits, and the “sides” of the vehicle are actually its wings. 

When transitioning to vertical flight, the capsule is rotated so the pilot is facing the sky—and once the vehicle is off the ground, the whole thing rotates to align itself (and the pilot) in the direction of forward flight.

Document ID: US 20230159161 A1

Istanbul University

Cities are typically the enemy of drone delivery, with massive buildings, limited landing space, and millions of people who pose potential safety hazards. But a patent filed by Istanbul University offers a possible solution.

The patent, filed in 2021, proposes installing modular landing and docking platforms on structures such as apartment buildings. When not in use, these platforms could be enclosed in protective covering. But they would be capable of communicating with drones, opening up when one is approaching with a delivery.

A manual operator or autonomous software would be responsible for sending the drones to the proper platforms, where a docking system would ensure they stay in place while completing the delivery. The platforms could even be outfitted with QR codes, allowing the drone to “see” them and guide itself to its destination.

Document ID: US 20230159193 A1

NEC Corp.

Flying a drone is kind of like playing a video game—similar to an Xbox controller, drone remote controllers typically have an array of joysticks and buttons. 

But soon it might be more like virtual reality. A 2021 patent filing from Japan’s NEC Corp. describes a remote control device that uses a camera to capture the operator’s hand gestures, conveying them into instructions for a drone.

NEC has its toes dipped in several different industries, but if it gets around to developing this design, it could be a game-changer for drone operators. Imagine pointing a finger to move your drone forward, using a “stop” gesture to make it hover in place, or waving to tell it to land.

Document ID: US 20230161339 A1

Rhombus Systems

The FAA is still developing a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) rule for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), one that would allow remote pilots to fly drones where they can’t see them. But right now surveillance and detect-and-avoid technologies aren’t quite developed enough to enable safe BVLOS flights.

That’s where a company like Rhombus Systems can help. Per a 2022 patent filing, the firm has devised a solution that would use a network of antennae, such as cell towers, to create a low-altitude radar system for UAVs.

Rhombus essentially wants to fill in the gaps not covered by air traffic control, which cannot “see” at the elevation drones fly. The system would also track other objects in low-altitude airspace—such as birds or balloons—to give UAVs greater detection capabilities.

Primarily a home and business security firm, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see Rhombus pursue a drone radar and low-altitude airspace security system. And if it were to reach scale, it would surely be a boon for BVLOS operations.

Document ID: US 11656354 B2

And a Few More Patents

Believe it or not, AT&T operates a fleet of drones, and it may be planning to automate its network. 

The telecommunications giant is trying to turn its COW (Cell on Wings) drones into mobile cell towers, with each aircraft transmitting 5G coverage over 10 square miles. And per a 2021 patent filing, it appears the company is building a system that would automatically route COW drones to areas that lack coverage.

The system would autonomously determine where the drones are needed, orchestrating their movement between storage or staging hubs and service areas. It would also tell each drone where and when it needs to charge.

Document ID: US 20230147814 A1

Toyota, meanwhile, filed a patent that calls for drones to provide a different kind of service: roadside assistance. 

The company hasn’t made any public statements to suggest it’s currently operating drones. But its 2021 filing describes a network of UAVs that could issue warnings to drivers (i.e. icy roads or construction), deliver equipment to personnel, and perform other tasks.

These drones would be coordinated by a real-time traffic detection system, taking in road congestion data and mapping it to identify places where an accident might occur. The system would then direct drones to busy intersections or congested highways, putting them in position to provide service if needed.

Document ID: US 20230135603 A1

Drones are getting most of the attention in the modern flying space these days, but advanced air mobility technology is also on the rise. The problem? The vast majority of pilots haven’t been trained to operate aircraft such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis.

But Beta Air, one of the leaders in the young space, may have a way to make life easy on prospective eVTOL pilots. The firm in December filed a patent for a hover-and-thrust control assembly, which would essentially turn the pilot’s arm into a flight controller.

The mechanism looks like an extra long stick shift—moving the stick up would increase vertical thrust, while moving it down would decrease it. At the end of the stick, the pilot would use a thumbwheel to increase or decrease forward thrust, enabling propulsion in four directions through a single control system.

Document ID: US 20230159160 A1

Meanwhile, a patent filed by Kia, which is decidedly not an eVTOL manufacturer, could give Beta Air and other air taxi firms a lift.

The filing calls for a charging system that would stay attached to the aircraft during takeoff, giving it some extra juice during the most energy-consuming stage of flight. To pull it off, the system would deploy a smaller drone that ascends with the air taxi, keeping the aircraft attached to a power source as it climbs. The smaller UAV would then release and fly back to the ground.

Document ID: US 20230135344 A1

The system, if it comes to fruition, could be the key to enabling longer flight times for air taxis. Keep in mind, though, that Kia’s invention and those described above may be several years away from development—and they may never be developed at all.

See anything I missed this month? Reach out to jack@flying.media or @jack_daleo on Twitter.

The post A Flying Car Design Among Recently Published Patents appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Earlier this week, the FAA announced it’s eyeing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) exemption approvals for four top aviation firms, opening the door to expanded unmanned operations. Now we know exactly what permissions they’re asking for.

On Thursday, the FAA published the requests of the four companies—Phoenix Air Unmanned, uAvionix, UPS Flight Forward, and Zipline—and is seeking comments from the public. Stakeholders have until June 14 to share their suggestions or concerns with the requests. 

Considering the agency’s reliance on granting exemptions to gather information as it works toward a final BVLOS rule, the FAA will likely approve the four requests, even if they require the inclusion of special conditions or restrictions.

But if granted, what exactly would these permissions do? Let’s break down what the requested exemptions mean for each of the four companies.

Describing itself as an aerial data acquisition services provider, Phoenix Air Unmanned is looking to operate BVLOS as well as over people and roads. To do so, it’s requesting relief from several sections of FAA Part 61 and Part 91.

The firm wants to use its SVO 50 V2 aircraft from SwissDrones to perform aerial work, photography, surveying, patrols, and inspections of any powerline infrastructure owned or operated by a Department of Energy-recognized electric utility. The turbine-powered drone is capable of flying up to two hours with a 30-pound payload.

“Our petition for exemption process has included a safety risk management review alongside the FAA, demonstration of the aircraft, and on-site evaluation of BVLOS inspection operations within the proposed concept of operations,” Phoenix told FLYING. “The exemption request is in the interest of the public, and we welcome public comment as a next step of the authorization process.”

The exemption, if approved, would build on Phoenix’s Part 107 waiver, issued in March, that permits BVLOS operations for aircraft under 55 pounds. The approval did not cover the SVO 50 V2, which weighs 190 pounds.

Autonomous flight services provider—and avionics developer—uAvionix is also seeking exemptions from Parts 61 and 91…but not for its own operations.

• READ MORE: uAvionix Introduces Combo Tailbeacon ADS-B

Rather, the firm wants to conduct research and development on BVLOS operations for others—using an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft—as part of the Vantis unmanned aerial systems (UAS) project at the FAA’s North Dakota UAS test site.

“Our application is unique in that we are not seeking this exemption as a means to further our own BVLOS flight objectives….instead we are trying to unlock that capability for the rest of industry, and this is one way to achieve those goals,” Christian Ramsey, managing director at uAvionix, told FLYING.

The aircraft, called Rapace, was granted a special airworthiness certificate—experimental class (SAC-EC) from the FAA and has a maximum takeoff weight of 26.5 pounds. It’s custom built, with uAvionix-designed internal avionics, command and control radios, autopilot, and positioning sensors. Through Vantis, the firm is working with partners such as Thales and the state of North Dakota to provide additional infrastructure for the program.

“The concept here is that the program team works out the ‘recipe’ for BVLOS exemptions, which are repeatable by other operators in the future,” Ramsey said. “In the end, this exemption isn’t about our operations… it’s about trailblazing and developing an infrastructure that others can use to achieve their own operational and business goals.”

UPS Flight Forward, the first FAA-approved Part 135 drone operator, is requesting slightly different permissions, including exemptions from Part 135.

The exemptions, if approved, would incorporate remote operations centers across the company’s network and enable “flights in outlying locations from (an) ROC in a different location” —essentially BVLOS flights.

But the request goes further. Flight Forward also wants to fly its M2 drone from Matternet with a ground-based surveillance system coupled to a suite of situational awareness tools that would replace the visual observer in BVLOS operations. That means the company will be able to fly farther than it would have had it opted for a simple section 107.31 waiver.

And then there’s Zipline. Its request is simple: The company wants to revise its previous exemption in order to replace visual observers with its patented acoustic detect-and-avoid system (DAA). DAA was a key factor in securing the company’s Part 135 certification, the most permissive the FAA has awarded so far and enables BVLOS operations.

Flight Forward and Zipline did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

Each of the four exemption requests has its own petition for public comment, and they can be found within the Federal Register. Anyone can comment, but take that with a grain of salt—the FAA may make some modifications but will most likely approve all four requests.

However, there may be a better way to make your voice heard. Concurrently with the four requests, the FAA released a petition for comment on a proposed rule for BVLOS, asking industry stakeholders to provide input on the agency’s potential approaches.

The document outlines several areas of proposed rulemaking—such as detect-and-avoid performance standards, well-clear boundaries, and a new class of “shielded” operations—each with a few questions for the public to answer. The comment period for that petition also expires June 14.

The post FAA Releases BVLOS Waiver Requests for Public Comment appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

So, you want to fly a drone? You’re not alone—every month, thousands of people in search of employment or a side hustle apply for Part 107 remote pilot certification from the FAA.

To be clear, you don’t need FAA approval to fly a drone recreationally, so long as you stick to the agency’s guidelines for recreational fliers and community-based organizations. But to start a career as a commercial drone pilot or operator, you’ll need to check a few boxes first.

Luckily, the process is fairly straightforward. According to the FAA, some 4,500 people apply for Part 107 certification each month, but only about 0.7 percent are rejected. Still, there are a few things you need to know before diving into the certification process—and a few to keep in mind after.

You’ll find all of them and more in FLYING’s drone pilot certification guide. Read on to learn how you can launch your career as a drone operator in just a few weeks.

Start Your Application

The bogeyman of Part 107 remote pilot certification is the airman knowledge test, a set of 60 questions that assess the applicant’s knowledge of drone regulations, requirements, safety protocols, approved operations, and more. Before diving into it, though, there are a few things you’ll need to do.

If you’re a current Part 61 pilot certificate holder, skip ahead now to the “For Part 61 Holders” section—your path is simpler than it would be for a completely new applicant.

To start your application and take the knowledge test, you need only be 14 years old. But younger applicants may need to wait a few years to receive approval—the FAA lists three eligibility requirements you must meet before completing your application.

You must be: at least 16 years old; in proper physical and mental condition to fly safely; and able to read, write, speak and understand English (though the agency may make an exception if the applicant cannot meet one of these requirements because of a medical reason, such as hearing loss).

If that sounds like you, good news: You’ll be able to parlay a passing test score into a remote pilot certification in just a few weeks.

Next, you’ll need to create a profile on the FAA’s Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (IACRA) to obtain an FAA tracking number (FTN). If you’ve previously been issued an airman certificate, you already have an FTN—just log in or register for an IACRA account and enter your certificate number to find it.

If you haven’t, simply register for an account with some basic personal information (name, date of birth, etc.) and a username and password, and IACRA will assign an FTN in seconds.

Once you have it, you’re ready to schedule your knowledge test. To do so, register with the FAA’s testing vendor PSI Services via this portal, which will ask for your FTN and other basic information. Then you’ll need to apply for the “Unmanned Aircraft General—Small (UAG)” exam and select a nearby testing center.

Finally, the site will take you through payment—typically around $175 per appointment—and allow you to schedule the test several weeks in advance (some centers may also allow cancellations).

Now, it’s time to…

Prepare for the Knowledge Test

Your exam is just a few days or weeks away. But don’t panic—the 0.7 percent of applicants who are rejected typically fail because of errors on their application, such as name or nationality discrepancies.

While it may seem daunting, the test isn’t terribly difficult—as long as you study. You only need a score of 70 percent or higher to pass, and applicants can use aids such as calculators or supplemental books approved and provided by the proctor.

As for the material itself, here are the subject areas you should familiarize yourself with:

• Regulations for small UAS rating privileges, limitations, and flight operations
• Airspace classification, operating requirements, and flight restrictions
• Weather sources and the impact of weather on small UAS
• Loading and performance
• Operations such as emergency procedures, crew resource management, and maintenance

An expanded list of exam topics can be found here. But if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all that information, don’t be—there are study materials out there to help you.

Your best friend will be the FAA’s remote pilot study guide, which will go over all the material you need for the test. For a broader overview of subject areas being evaluated, you can check out the airman certification standards for UAS. Or, you can test your knowledge with online sample questions that simulate the real deal. For additional sample questions, check PSI’s website.

If you’re in need of more guidance, you might try getting advice from a certified flight instructor—if they’re up to date on certification, they’ll be familiar with the ins and outs of the knowledge test and the certification process at large. You could also contact the FAA’s UAS support center or look into non-FAA study guides.

When the day of the test arrives, make sure to jot down your FTN and bring the proper identification information (which varies depending on citizenship status) to the testing center. Once there, you have the option to complete a tutorial or practice session—or you can dive right into the exam.

As soon as you finish, you’ll receive your scores on a printed Airman Knowledge Test Report (AKTR). If you passed, congratulations! You’ll now have 24 months to complete your remote pilot application while the results are valid.

If not, don’t panic. You’ll need to wait two weeks, but applicants can retake the test as many times as they want. The process is nearly identical: You’ll need to reschedule an appointment through PSI and submit your AKTR (which tells you exactly what you got wrong on the previous attempt). 

Keep on trying until eventually…

You Passed! What Now?

Almost there! To finish your application, log in to IACRA and click on the Applicant Console, then “Start New Application.” That will open a drop-down list—from there, select “Pilot” and click “Remote Pilot,” then “Start Application,” which will take you to Form 8710-13.

You’ll be prompted to answer a few simple questions and asked for your photo ID information, as well as your 17-digit knowledge test exam ID (which can take up to three days to appear in IACRA). After signing and submitting the application, you’ll also need to complete a Transportation Security Administration security background check. 

Soon after, you should receive a confirmation email with instructions for printing a temporary remote pilot certificate—and the permanent version will arrive in the mail in a few weeks!

The final step: Register your drone for $5 by logging in or creating an account with FAADroneZone and selecting “Fly a sUAS under Part 107.” You can then mark the drone with your registration number, which is valid for three years.

And with that, you can officially fly drones less than 55 pounds for work or business as a Part 107 certified remote drone pilot!

For Part 61 Holders

If you don’t already hold a Part 61 certificate, this section won’t apply to you. But for those who have already been certified as pilots, flight instructors, or ground instructors and have completed a flight review in the past 24 months, your path to remote drone pilot is streamlined.

First, log in to your FAA Safety Team account or create a new one. Then use those credentials to enroll in the Part 107 Small UAS Initial (ALC-451) online training course, which will cover the same information evaluated on the knowledge test. There is no passing or failing.

From there, log in to your IACRA account or create a new one and navigate to Form 8710-13. Once that application is complete and submitted for processing, the final step is making an appointment with one of the entities below to validate your identity:

• FAA Flight Standards District Office
• FAA-designated pilot examiner
• Airmen certification representative
• FAA-certificated flight instructor

You’ll need to bring the completed Form 8710-13, proof of your current flight review, a photo ID, and your online training course completion certificate to the appointment. Then, a representative will sign your application and issue a temporary airman certificate—the permanent version will arrive in the mail a few weeks later.

And with that, you’re ready to fly!

Stay Up to Date

Now that you’re out in the world making deliveries, taking photos, conducting inspections, or performing some other kind of remote drone pilot work, it can be tempting to forget your roots. But even after certification, it’s crucial to remember the knowledge that got you there.

The FAA tells FLYING that all Part 107 certificated pilots must keep up to date with the rules for safe flying outlined under Part 107 of the federal aviation regulations, or FAR Part 107. They must also be aware of flight restrictions such as “no drone zones,” which are tracked by the FAA’s B4UFLY mobile app and other applications.

To ensure pilots are in the loop, the agency requires them to have completed an online training course within the past 24 months to fly under Part 107. The Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent (ALC-677) training course can be found here, and an alternative course for Part 61 certificate holders with a current flight review is available here. Both courses are free.

And don’t forget: You must have your remote pilot certificate physically accessible while conducting Part 107 operations.

As long as you stay up to date, you shouldn’t have any issues flying your drone for work or business. But if you pay any attention to drone regulations, you’re likely well aware of the myriad restrictions that come with Part 107, some of which will limit your work opportunities. Luckily, we’ve got you covered: Read on to learn how you can take your skills to the next level.

The Wide World of Part 107 Waivers

Now that you’ve obtained your Part 107 certification, there’s plenty you can do. But why limit yourself? By applying for an individual Part 107 waiver, you can gain new capabilities from the FAA that might open more career opportunities.

The agency provides a handy guide that breaks down which waivers skirt which rules. But here are a few examples:

• Waiving section 107.25 enables you to operate from a moving vehicle.
• Waiving section 107.29 allows flights at night without anti-collision lighting.
• Waiving section 107.31 permits flights beyond the pilot’s visual line of sight (BVLOS).
• Waiving section 107.35 gives one pilot permission to fly multiple drones.

Other waivers lift restrictions on speed, altitude, and visibility, or allow pilots to fly over people or moving vehicles. There are a total of 11 exceptions for which you can apply.

But before you start plowing through applications, make sure you know what you’re getting into. The FAA’s section specific evaluation information explains the restrictions removed by each waiver, as well as how the agency evaluates applications.

For example, when applying for an exception to section 107.31—which calls for operations within the visual line of sight—the FAA will want to see that your drone has a powerful signal spectrum or detect-and-avoid system to navigate the airspace. It might also award points if you use ground-based radar or a visual observer to track the drone.

When you’ve determined which waivers you’d like to secure, head over to FAADroneZone, log in, add “Drone Owners and Pilots” to your services, and launch the dashboard. Then click “Create Part 107 Waiver or Authorization” and follow the prompts—the site will tell you which waivers are applicable based on the specifications you provide.

Next, you’ll need to provide your mailing address, phone number, and Part 107 certification number. And on the following page, you’ll select your waivers, share operation parameters (such as location and start and end dates), and explain your plan to mitigate the risks of operating without certain restrictions. You can even upload supporting documents to further outline your plan.

Requesting an exemption to section 107.39 (operations over people) will also require you to include your drone’s registration number, model, and manufacturer. But otherwise, you’re ready to submit the application.

After your application is received, the FAA may ask for additional information. And if all goes smoothly, you’ll receive the agency’s decision within 90 days of submission.

Finalize Your Flight Plan

Now what? Well, that’s about it. You’ve made it through certification, kept up to date with drone regulations, and secured the necessary waivers to fly how you want. All that’s left is finding work—and there’s a lot of it out there.

A quick Google search will turn up hundreds of openings for remote drone pilots across industries such as logistics, agriculture, law enforcement, defense, and plenty more. It may not be what you imagined in high school, but you could finally get that job at Google (flying for Wing) or Amazon (directing operations for Prime Air). 

Or you could get in on the ground floor at any number of drone startups like Flytrex, DroneUp, or Volansi. Even non-drone companies such as Dish and SAIC are searching for drone operators—the possibilities are endless.

If you’re looking for more information on remote drone pilot jobs that might require a waiver, check out this guide from drone law firm Rupprecht Law.

The post You (Probably) Have What It Takes To Be a Drone Pilot appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

More than a year after the FAA published the final, nearly 400-page report from its beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) advisory rulemaking committee (ARC), the agency has opened the door to expanded unmanned operations for four major aviation players.

On Tuesday, the FAA announced it is seeking public comment on four requests for BVLOS waivers that would allow remote pilots to fly their aircraft where they can’t see them. The requests come from aerial data acquisition firm Phoenix Air Unmanned, unmanned aviation services provider uAvionix, and drone delivery firms Zipline and UPS Flight Forward.

Starting Thursday, the public will have 20 days to comment on the proposed waivers, allowing stakeholders to express any concerns about safety, privacy, or other topics. The FAA will then review all comments and expects to issue decisions granting or denying the requests this summer.

“The FAA will review and consider all public comments received,” an agency spokesperson told FLYING. “Any final approvals will include safety mitigations, specific conditions and limitations, and data-reporting requirements that will allow the FAA to analyze these operations.”

Currently, the FAA relies on BVLOS waivers to permit expanded unmanned operations in lieu of a robust regulatory framework. Data gathered from those operations is being used by the agency to develop a new set of regulations that would enable operations without an approval process. However, acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen recently admitted there is not yet a date in sight for a final BVLOS rule.

The FAA grants several different exceptions to Part 107, the rule that outlines regulations for small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and certificated remote pilots. These waivers exempt operators from different aspects of the rule. For example, an exception to section 107.31 permits operations beyond the remote pilot in command’s line of sight (but within view of a visual observer).

Other waivers offer even greater flexibility. An exemption from section 107.33(b), for instance, enables operations even beyond the visual observer’s line of sight. Still more waivers cover other aspects of operations, such as speed and altitude (section 107.51), and flying over people (section 107.39) and moving vehicles (section 107.145).

Phoenix Air Unmanned, for example, is seeking an exemption for BVLOS inspections of powerline infrastructure owned by any Department of Energy recognized electric utility.

“Our petition for exemption process has included a safety risk management review alongside the FAA, demonstration of the aircraft, and on-site evaluation of BVLOS inspection operations within the proposed concept of operations,” the company told FLYING. “The exemption request is in the interest of the public and we welcome public comment as a next step of the authorization process.”

For now, we don’t know exactly which BVLOS permissions the other three new applicants are requesting—that will be made clear Thursday. But they could involve expanding operations beyond the line of sight of the remote pilot, the visual observer, or both. They may even call for one pilot or observer to be responsible for supervising multiple aircraft, another path to expanded operations.

While commenters will likely have some concerns around the safety of BVLOS operations, the FAA has an incentive to approve these waivers in some fashion.

It’s possible commenters’ worries are enough to sway the agency into outright denying the waivers. But the more likely outcome is regulators grant them, even if it means including special conditions or limitations for safety. Even a limited approval would give the FAA more operations to study as it builds BVLOS regulations.

“uAvionix is encouraged by the actions of the FAA and looks forward to the public review period and the intended outcome of extending BVLOS operations for all,” a uAvionix spokesperson told FLYING.

Zipline did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment. UPS Flight Forward declined to comment at this time.

The post FAA Eyes Beyond Visual Line of Sight Approvals for 4 More Firms appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Amazon’s drone delivery dream isn’t dead, but it may be time for the firm to reassess its strategy.

Last week, the e-commerce giant told CNBC that its Prime Air drone delivery service—which currently serves a smattering of households in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas—has completed just 100 deliveries since launching in late December. Per internal company projections, the firm in January was targeting 10,000 deliveries by the end of 2023.

Now, that projection appears to be in peril. In Lockeford, a town of about 4,000, Prime Air employees said Amazon’s drones serve only two households, each less than a mile from the firm’s local delivery hub.

College Station, which has a population closer to 120,000, may provide more opportunities. But so far, Amazon has failed to capitalize on that market, too.

Amazon did not immediately respond to FLYING‘s request for comment.

There are a few potential drivers for the business’ struggles. Perhaps the largest is the regulatory hurdles it faces. 

Amazon, one of five drone firms to receive FAA Part 135 air carrier certification, would appear to be in a good spot. But those approvals come with major restrictions—in Amazon’s case, they include the ability to fly at night, over people and roads, or beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of a ground observer.

Those restrictions were cemented in November after the FAA rejected several of Amazon’s petitions to ease them. The decision reportedly came as a surprise—according to Prime Air employees, the firm had put up dozens of staffers in hotels in Pendleton, Oregon, home to one of its main test sites, with plans to move them to Lockeford and College Station last summer.

According to the FAA, Amazon did not demonstrate that the MK27-2—its latest drone model, a hexagonal design with six propellers and an onboard sense-and-avoid system—could safely operate near people. The drone’s 80-pound weight also places it outside the purview of the FAA’s Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems rule, muddying the regulatory waters further.

Still, Amazon soldiered on, launching its two services a month later. But soon after, Prime Air was hit with layoffs, and early reports implied less-than-stellar returns in Lockeford and College Station. Now we know exactly how Prime Air has fared: Five months into 2023, it has completed 100 deliveries, or about 1 percent of its goal of 10,000 deliveries this year.

The drone delivery industry was expected to move slowly—and so far it has. But if the rest of the industry is taking its time, Amazon is moving at a snail’s pace.

Currently, Zipline is the industry’s front-runner with 600,000 completed deliveries as of May. Alphabet’s Wing, perhaps the only drone firm that can rival Prime Air’s corporate backing, told FLYING it has made more than 330,000. And DroneUp, the Walmart drone delivery partner that cut jobs last week, said it has made 110,000 deliveries, including 6,000 just last month.

In other words, even if Amazon were on track to hit its 2023 delivery target, it would still fall far short of its key rivals. That’s a sobering outlook given former CEO Jeff Bezos’ initial projections of dominance in 2013.

So how have these firms accomplished what Amazon (so far) could not? The answer lies in regulatory approvals.

Zipline, for example, owns the FAA’s most expansive air carrier approval to date—granted after the agency determined the safety of the firm’s acoustic detect-and-avoid system—allowing it to operate BVLOS and over people. That means its drones can fly where Amazon’s cannot, and the company has leveraged those permissions into robust services in Africa, Asia, and the U.S. 

Zipline also recently secured $330 million in funding to support the launch of P2, its new delivery system that adds a flexible delivery “droid” to the network. The droid will enable more precise deliveries and easier loading of cargo at restaurants and other launch sites.

Regulatory approvals have also given a lift to Wing. Under its Part 135 certificate, the firm can fly BVLOS and over people, which has opened up new U.S. routes and expanded its customer base. That has enabled small services in Virginia and Texas to go with Wing’s complex operations in Australia, where it has partnered with DoorDash and others.

Meanwhile, DroneUp, which flies within a 1.5-mile delivery radius with Walmart under FAA Part 107, is looking to expand its range with new technologies acquired via partnerships. Those include a drone air traffic control system and an autonomous flight system that could help prove to the FAA that its operations are safe for BVLOS.

Why, you may ask, has Amazon been unable to secure these approvals? While the company has gone through several iterations of its drone—including the soon-to-be-released MK30—none have swayed the FAA’s confidence in Prime Air’s safety record.

Several high-profile accidents involving Amazon drones have been reported at the firm’s test facilities, including one in Pendleton that sparked a 20-acre brush fire. Accidents are part of any drone company’s journey, as it turns out. But they appear to be chronic for Prime Air, which has drastically limited its operations.

Another issue appears to be a lack of demand, though it’s unclear what’s causing it. CNBC reported that Prime Air’s Lockeford service has just a handful of signups despite Amazon’s claim that thousands of people “have expressed interest.” The firm says it has been communicating with potential users directly, and some customers even said they were offered gift cards as an incentive.

It could be that the low demand is a symptom of Prime Air’s chosen markets. Lockeford residents, for example, said the drones could startle farm animals in the heavily rural area. Yet Zipline, Wing, and others also fly in rural areas and have experienced no issue garnering new customers. More likely is that FAA flight restrictions have capped Prime Air’s operations—and, by extension, its potential demand in Lockeford and College Station.

“While the FAA broadened Prime Air’s authority to conduct drone deliveries to include sites in California and Texas, the phased process for expanding our service areas is taking longer than we anticipated,” Amazon spokesperson Av Zammit told CNBC.

Whatever the reason for Prime Air’s lack of success, Amazon appears to be committed to getting its drone business off the ground. But it’s going to take much longer than expected.

The post Amazon Says Prime Air Has Completed Just 100 Drone Deliveries appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

DroneUp, the company powering drone delivery for the largest retailer in the world, has trimmed its headcount.

According to a CNBC report citing two unnamed people who lost their jobs, the Walmart partner began cutting jobs across the company and informing staffers they were let go Monday morning. DroneUp CEO Tom Walker did not specify the exact number of cuts but told FLYING they represented “a small percentage of the team.” He said the firm’s headcount now stands at 418.

According to Walker, the layoffs represent a strategic part of the company’s shift away from “enterprise” services—such as construction, real estate inspections, aerial data capture, and marketing—and toward drone delivery of items like paper towels, ice cream, and rotisserie chickens.

“After tremendous consumer adoption of our drone delivery services, we have made the decision to shift our business model to align our company structure around the continued growth and success of drone delivery and other drone services out of our hubs,” he said.

Walker also claimed that, over the next six months, DroneUp “will hire more people than were laid off,” owing to increased growth in the drone delivery business. The implication is that the company may establish new positions within the drone business, particularly at its hubs, the bases of operation for its services. DroneUp operates 36 hubs out of Walmart stores.

It’s unclear exactly which teams were affected by Monday’s layoffs, but LinkedIn offers some clues. According to posts made by former DroneUp employees this week, the company fired its head of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) flight training, a flight engineer, a development services engineer and a UAS flight instructor.

Two marketing managers, two business analysts, and the director of business development also appear to be included in the cuts, per LinkedIn posts.

Though layoffs are rarely a positive indicator, DroneUp’s appear to be relatively small. The Virginia Beach, Virginia-based company is also not the only drone firm to trim headcount in recent months.

In January, Amazon’s Prime Air drone division was hit with “significant” layoffs as part of a companywide headcount reduction. Around the same time, Wing, the drone delivery arm of Alphabet, was also impacted by job cuts affecting the broader business. Since then, Amazon’s drone network has stagnated while Wing appears to be on track.

It’s difficult to say what DroneUp’s outlook will be. The Walmart-DroneUp network is coming off a record year that saw it expand to seven states and complete more than 6,000 deliveries.  Recent partnerships with Iris Automation and Wonder Robotics should eventually enable beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) services—which will help it scale further.

Currently, Walmart and DroneUp operate within a 1.5-mile radius of their store-based hubs. Increasing that range could go a long way toward expanding the market for those services and increasing demand.

All of that depends on BVLOS-enabling technology being tested and approved by the FAA and other entities. But clearly, delivery—and expanding the capabilities of hubs—is where the company’s focus will be moving forward.

The post Walmart Delivery Partner DroneUp Cuts Jobs appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

As federal officials, state lawmakers, and agencies such as the FAA tackle the massive aviation industry, they now must also contend with regulating an entirely new sphere of companies, technologies, safety protocols, and more.

A new era of aviation—encompassing drones, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), advanced air mobility (AAM), electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL), and other new ways to fly— is coming. Now, around the country, federal and state lawmakers are trying to figure out how to manage it.

Welcome to the May edition of Regulatory Roundup, FLYING’s monthly look at the key regulations, laws, and policy proposals making their way through the modern aviation sphere, both in the U.S. and around the world.

Here are the key bills, initiatives, and regulatory approvals from the past 30 days:

At the Top

The U.S. government really doesn’t trust foreign drones. 

Introduced last month by congressional Republicans Elise Stefanik (R-New York) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), the Countering CCP Drones Act would add those manufactured in Russia and China—including those from DJI—to the Federal Communications Committee’s covered list, a group of businesses with which the U.S. government refuses to do business.

Adding DJI and others to the covered list would prevent the FCC from issuing equipment authorizations to other U.S. agencies, effectively banning the drones from government use. Hobbyists and commercial services, however, would be unaffected. 

Calls to ban DJI and other manufacturers are coming from both sides of the aisle. The Republican-backed bill echoes the sentiment of the bipartisan American Security Drone Act of 2023, introduced in February. That legislation would also limit drones at the federal level and recently garnered support from Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

This month, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) introduced another protectionist bill, the Protecting the Border from Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act. Aimed at quashing UAV-related border crossings, such as drug smuggling drones, the rule would not ban foreign technology. But it would crack down on unauthorized use of airspace, which is a good thing for the drone industry writ large.

A few weeks earlier, a similar bill was introduced in the House by two Democrats and two Republicans. That legislation—simply called the Drone Act of 2023—seeks to limit drone-related crime within the U.S. 

The Drone Act would prohibit users from removing drone identification numbers and safety features, such as anti-collision lights, as well as from using drones to transport weapons or interfere with emergency, military, or law enforcement activities. The bill would also attach a 10-year prison sentence to the use of drones for delivering drugs or weapons to prisons.

While drones face new restrictions, another industry is benefitting from new guidelines. Last week, acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen gave an update on the agency’s progress at the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International’s (AUVSI) Xponential trade show in Denver.

Specifically, while beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) regulations for drones remain out of sight, Nolen revealed that the FAA will release an AAM implementation plan by the end of May. It won’t create new regulations or certification standards, but the document should clarify the roles and responsibilities of AAM stakeholders as the industry evolves.

The implementation plan follows the FAA’s release of an updated blueprint for air taxi operations in urban areas and the announcement of its first AAM Summit in August in Baltimore. The agency hopes to certify the first eVTOL aircraft for commercial operations by the end of 2024.

From the States

Like the federal government, some states are also hesitant about foreign drones.

Last month, I highlighted Florida’s ban on the use of Chinese and Russian drones by local government and law enforcement agencies. This month, Arkansas is the culprit—the state is giving public entities four years to remove drones manufactured by DJI and others from their fleets.

The Arkansas rule is nearly identical to Florida’s. It will require state agencies to retire their drones and won’t allocate state funding to replace them. But unlike in Florida, Arkansas public entities can apply for waivers if they believe their banned equipment will be operable beyond the four-year sunset window.

According to AUVSI, other states, such as Utah and Florida, have also proposed bills restricting AAM operations. Oregon, for example, is contemplating a bill that would prohibit local governments from granting exclusive vertiport rights to any one company, which could inadvertently make the state less attractive to AAM companies.

But for the most part, state-level rules from the past month have supported the expansion of drones and AAM.

New York, for instance, is considering two bills that would regulate unmanned aircraft systems by amending the state’s traffic laws and clarifying the federal preemption of state regulations—both are supported by AUVSI. A similar law has been proposed in North Carolina.

And despite its statewide DJI ban, Florida’s House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that sets new standards for “drone ports,” which it defines as fixed or mobile locations for the operation of drone fleets. Walmart and DroneUp, for example, use drone ports to make deliveries in the state, and the new law would limit local oversight of their services.

There’s been some state-level movement on AAM as well. A bill in committee in the California Legislature would establish an AAM and Aviation Electrification Committee. That group would be responsible for assessing the state’s current laws and making recommendations that would speed the development of AAM operations and infrastructure. 

Meanwhile, a near-identical bill was codified by the Texas Legislature this week and is set to take effect September 1. These preemptive rules should help California, Texas, and others prepare for the emergence of services like air taxis—the FAA is targeting its first air taxi certification in late 2024.

Around the World

Much of the activity this month took place at home, but there have been a few key developments abroad.

The biggest is that India and the European Union are collaborating on drone and AAM regulations. Last month, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency signed letters of intent to create new regulations for Indian airspace, including standards for drones, air taxis, and other emerging services. The agencies will share information on flight plans and profiles to inform their decision-making. 

Currently, India’s drone and AAM regulations resemble the FAA’s. But soon the country could see more elements of EASA policy, particularly U-Space, a framework for BVLOS flights that designates airspace for complex operations. The regulation took effect in the EU this year and is now evolving as stakeholders ramp up to routine service.

Meanwhile, EASA also published what it claims is the world’s first proposal for assessing noise from air taxis. 

Given the technology’s high likelihood of operating near people, keeping noise to a minimum will be crucial for eVTOL manufacturers, and EASA could help them do it. The agency said its findings from the proposed report could be used to create new type certification standards for eVTOL aircraft. Eventually, those provisions could be adopted by other agencies, such as the FAA.

Though there wasn’t much regulatory movement in other countries last month, key industry stakeholders will gather at several events in June. Keep an eye out for announcements from the International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the EASA-FAA International Safety Conference, International Advanced Air Mobility Expo—and if you miss them, we’ll cover them all here in next month’s Regulatory Roundup.

The post US Regulations Seek To Expand AAM, Restrict Drones appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A drone maker based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the latest to earn a hefty order of UAVs for the Ukrainian war effort.

This week, Red Cat Holdings announced it will fulfill an order to provide 200 of its long-range, high-speed first-person-view (FPV) Teal 2 UAVs to Ukrainian drone pilots. The firm did not specify what entity placed the order, but the first Teal 2 delivery is expected in June.

Red Cat did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

The aircraft, which come from Red Cat subsidiary Teal Drones, are designed specifically to enable nighttime surveillance and reconnaissance operations. Officially launched just a few weeks ago, the Teal 2 is compact and rugged, built for challenging environments like the battlefield. Certified as “Blue UAS,” Red Cat is authorized to provide the tech to the U.S. military.

The Teal 2 is equipped with Teledyne FLIR’s Hadron 640R electro-optical/infrared sensor, which provides high-resolution thermal imaging, particularly for night operations. Red Cat claims Teal 2 also boasts the highest power-to-weight ratio in the drone industry that provides increased maneuverability even in GPS-jammed conditions. 

Taking a look at specs, the drone offers a flight time of about 30 minutes, a top speed of 23 mph and a maximum range of 3.1 miles from the controller. The Teal 2 is manufactured at Red Cat’s factory in Salt Lake City.

“Fortunately, Red Cat has the U.S. manufacturing capacity required to quickly deliver on such orders,” said CEO Jeff Thompson. “We are pleased to provide our product to Ukrainian drone pilots, and we look forward to continuing to engage with them, including by providing our new nighttime drone, the Teal 2. Much of drone activity is performed at night, and the Teal 2 is at the forefront of nighttime drone capabilities.”

In February, Thompson and a delegation from Red Cat met with NATO leaders to demonstrate Teal 2, a move that may have precipitated this week’s order. And Teal Drones last month supplied 15 Golden Eagle drones to a NATO member country committed to deploying them in Ukraine.

According to Red Cat, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) has also placed an order for 54 Teal 2 drones. Previously, the firm agreed to a five-year, $90 million contract to provide the agency with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for reconnaissance, surveillance, and tracking.

• READ MORE: Tactical Combat Drones Play a Role in Ukraine Air Defense

The Teal 2 could soon pop up in the U.S. Army as well. Teal Drones is one of three  manufacturers participating in the Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance Tranche 2 program, which aims to supply small UAS for platoons to conduct surveillance. That relationship bodes well for an Army use case for the Teal 2.

Ukrainian soldiers will likely use the drone the way CBP and the Army plan to use it. Soldiers will be able to store the Teal 2 in a rucksack, deploying it to identify targets and map the battlefield when visibility is low, giving them an advantage when night falls.

That probably won’t turn the tide of the war. But added support from Red Cat could make life easier for the Ukrainian military, which is also receiving drones from Draganfly, AeroDrone, One Way Aerospace and others.

The post Red Cat To Send 200 Surveillance, Recon Drones to Ukraine appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The FAA’s release of an updated blueprint for urban air mobility (UAM) operations last week was a positive development for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and air taxi technology. But on Wednesday, acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen provided a larger update on the agency’s vision.

At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Xponential 2023 trade show in Denver, Nolen delivered a keynote speech in which he detailed the FAA’s plans for expanded drone and advanced air mobility (AAM) operations.

According to the FAA chief, the agency later this month will release an AAM Implementation Plan—but rules for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights are still…well, out of sight.

“I’m here today because the reality of drones and AAM are much closer than we thought,” Nolen said. “But before this vision can be fully realized, a lot of work must be done.”

The FAA’s AAM Implementation Plan will help enable the “initial” operations described in its aforementioned blueprint. The plan will clarify responsibilities for AAM stakeholders and lay out the infrastructure and capabilities required for early AAM operations alongside other air traffic.

“If you’re looking for the code to the front door of the next generation of aviation, here it is,” Nolen said. “These documents are a hard look at what it’s going to take to have an air taxi safely take you where you need to go.”

Per the UAM blueprint, these initial services will resemble helicopter operations, making use of existing routes and infrastructure, like helipads. Once the implementation plan is released, the FAA will work with stakeholders to refine that strategy and get AAM off the ground. And if all goes according to plan, we could see flying taxis in our skies within five years.

“When it comes to advanced air mobility, we expect to see great demand for these operations by the time the Los Angeles Olympics take place in 2028,” Nolen said.

So far, the FAA has charted the path to certification for two eVTOL manufacturers, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, each of which has an air taxi partnership with a major U.S. airline. Safety permitting, it hopes to issue the first eVTOL airworthiness certificate in 2024. And by then, it expects to have ironed out the standards pilots must meet to fly those aircraft.

Looking further out, Nolen emphasized the need for global collaboration on AAM and the establishment of key infrastructure, like dedicated air taxi corridors. Already the FAA is working with agencies in the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea to create a common regulatory framework, aligning their standards and certification processes.

The FAA chief added the agency is crafting a set of AAM safety standards and regulations. He pointed out that because many eVTOL and air taxi services will carry people, a single accident could derail public confidence in the technology—even more so than drones.

“We are certifying eVTOLs under our existing regulations and are writing the standards that pilots will have to meet to fly them,” an FAA spokesperson told FLYING. “We expect to release the pilot standards this summer. The Implementation Plan discusses how these initiatives and our other work will come together to allow the air taxi industry to scale safely.”

Speaking of drones, Nolen had plenty to say about them, too: “We’ve made good progress over the past few years. We’ve enacted the Remote ID rule, and the Operations Over People rule. But to unleash the full potential of drones, we need to enable routine operations beyond the pilot’s visual line of sight.”

Unfortunately for drone firms, the agency still has not set a date to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for BVLOS, and Nolen acknowledged the criticism from some industry stakeholders that the agency isn’t moving fast enough.

But he countered that the slow pace is dictated by safety concerns and pointed to Matternet’s watershed FAA certification as a sign of progress. The agency awarded another groundbreaking approval to Percepto earlier this week.

“We’re in the early stages of developing the rule. We’ve received a lot of input from stakeholders, and the public, over the past year,” Nolen said, referring to the FAA’s BVLOS Advisory Rulemaking Committee. “Our initial focus is on normalizing standard operations for BVLOS flights at low altitudes. This will enable drone use for functions like infrastructure inspections and agricultural operations.”

After that, he predicted, the agency will tackle the integration of drone delivery services into complex airspace. But until a set of BVLOS rules is finalized, it will continue to grant provisional waivers, and it expects those requests to increase.

While waivers are a stopgap solution, they may provide rulemakers with valuable information around safe integration. Worth noting, however, is the proposed Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act of 2023 would require the FAA to submit a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on BVLOS within six months of passage.

More progress could be made on that front at the FAA’s Drone Symposium and first AAM Summit in August, where industry stakeholders will gather to discuss key challenges and solutions. By that point, though, Nolen will have stepped down as administrator.

“I’m honored to have helped lead the safety and integration efforts for this new era and to have been a part of bringing about the resulting benefits to the public,” he said to the Xponential crowd. “And I’m looking forward to seeing how things come together over the next few years and beyond.”

The FAA’s succession plan for Nolen is unclear. President Joe Biden’s pick to replace the outgoing administrator, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington, bowed out of the race earlier this year following Republican pushback, and no other candidate has been nominated.

That could be consequential—right now, there’s no guarantee that Nolen’s successor will share his philosophy on drones and AAM. To ensure his plans come to fruition, the FAA will need to find someone with similar values. Otherwise, it could risk more regulatory gridlock.

“As Mr. Nolen has said, we have a deep bench of executive talent who are absolutely up to the task of ensuring the continued safety of the national airspace system,” the FAA told FLYING.

According to a report last week, though, Biden is now eyeing AAM executive Mike Whitaker for the role. Whitaker, the COO of Hyundai Motor Group’s eVTOL arm Supernal, served as FAA deputy administrator and chief nextgen officer under the Barack Obama administration, where Whitaker helped modernize the country’s air traffic control system.

Whitaker also brings close to two decades of experience as a lawyer and executive in the airline industry. And in his time with the FAA, he became a certified pilot.

Given his background and current role at an AAM firm, Whitaker appears to be a good pick to continue Nolen’s work. But first, the FAA will need to approve him.

Beyond the leadership transition, the agency faces another looming deadline. In September, its current funding and authority are set to expire, and a new FAA Reauthorization Act will need to be passed. According to reports, it’s desperate for fresh funding, and reauthorization will set its budget and priorities for the next five years.

So, while Nolen’s comments this week in Denver described clear skies ahead for drone and AAM operations, his departure and the September deadline could shake up things. For now, keep an eye out for the AAM Implementation Plan—and watch for Biden to officially nominate Whitaker.

The post FAA Administrator: AAM Plan on the Horizon appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

For pilots, banner towing is considered an easy way to accrue flight hours or make a little extra money between trips. But a new service could soon eat up some of those flights.

Miami-based Sustainable Skylines on Tuesday announced that it has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding to support the initial launch of a drone-based advertising service, which it positions as a safer, more sustainable alternative to using airplanes. 

Addressing one of aerial advertising’s weaknesses, the service will also employ a campaign analytics platform. It’ll rely on a third-party cell phone dataset that tells advertisers how many people were in a location at a given time, giving them an idea of how many eyes were on the banner. The proprietary system would not share personal identifying information.

The company’s drone advertising fleet will comprise hybrid-electric drones manufactured by California-based Velary. They would need just three gallons of unleaded fuel to complete a four-hour flight, compared to 30 gallons of 100LL burned by the average piston single used for towing, which the firm claims can reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by 90 percent.

Sustainable Skylines also claims that using drones would improve safety, though aviation experts say banner flying is not inherently dangerous. However, the service would eliminate the rare cases—around 10 per year in the U.S.—where banner-tow airplanes suffered accidents.

Investors in Sustainable Skylines’ pre-seed round included Jeffrey Zajkowski, former head of Equity Capital Markets at J.P. Morgan; Interstate Outdoor Advertising CEO Drew Katz; Arcadia Power senior vice president of finance and head of corporate development Paul Mulé; and other angel investors and industry executives.

“Our cutting-edge technology cleans up the category’s carbon footprint while allowing brands to garner measurable insights in an out-of-home category that has been underutilized in the past,” said Jacob Stonecipher, CEO of Sustainable Skylines.

Though the company promises to reduce emissions in aerial advertising—something that will be crucial for the industry moving forward—drone advertising could have an adverse impact on pilots, many of whom rely on banner towing to earn additional flight hours or income.

While the pilot shortage is ongoing, banner towing has been relatively unaffected given the large pool of aviators who use the one-way, passenger-free flights to bridge gaps in their work. Typically, they also earn between $15 and $50 per hour. Really, the only impediment to pilots is learning how to hook the banner during takeoff.

Drones, however, could offer a cheaper alternative to advertisers. It’s unclear what Sustainable Skylines will charge for its service, and it’s possible that employing pilots will be more cost-effective in the short term. But as the drone industry continues to improve unit economics, those costs may come down—and end up pricing out pilots.

Stonecipher insisted that banner towers will have a role to play in Sustainable Skylines’ service, though he didn’t specify what exactly that role might be.

“To grow [out-of-home advertising] at scale and even bring it to the programmable ad marketplace will require the unique skill sets banner towers have,” he said. “We’re going to need that experience to reap the benefits and ensure the requisite level of safety pilots inherently have to ensure this market grows as fast as we know it can.”

One path the company could take that might preserve pilots’ jobs is offering a premium service. Its drones would fly closer to people than airplanes, and the added benefit of analytics could position Sustainable Skylines as a better, if more expensive, option.

While Sustainable Skylines is the first firm to eye drone banner towing, the bigger concern is that others will pop up. As the unit economics of drone flights allow companies to charge less, the worry is that competition could drive costs down further.

Time will tell if other firms arise to challenge the Miami-based firm. If they do, the industry could become more sustainable. But banner towing may no longer be the reliable hour-building option it is today for pilots.

The post Startup Aims To Replace Banner-Towing Aircraft With Drones appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

DroneUp, the company powering drone deliveries for Walmart, on Friday announced a partnership with aviation safety firm Iris Automation to build what is essentially an air traffic control system for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

The agreement could open up Walmart and DroneUp’s service, which is arguably the largest commercial drone delivery operation in the U.S., to flights beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator—something that has eluded the companies thus far. 

Unlike Zipline, American Robotics, and others, DroneUp and Walmart’s service does not rely on a Part 135 waiver from the FAA, which in certain cases allows for BVLOS flights. Rather, they’ve opted to fly their drones where operators can see them, limiting most deliveries to a 1.5-mile radius.

However, the Iris partnership hints at the companies’ larger ambitions. Under the agreement, DroneUp will deploy Iris’ ground-based detect-and-alert system, Casia G, across a network of “nodes” spread throughout its delivery areas. These nodes would function much like cell towers, communicating airspace traffic data to improve BVLOS visibility.

To do so, Casia G relies on artificial intelligence and computer vision technology that detects approaching aircraft in a 360-degree field, as far as 1.75 miles away. But that range becomes unlimited in a multi-node network, like the one DroneUp is proposing.

By stationing Iris’ tech at launch and recovery points and throughout delivery zones, DroneUp could create a rudimentary air traffic control system for drones, one that detects aircraft, classifies them, and issues alerts whenever they fly into the operating area. That would give operators a holistic view of the airspace—and make BVLOS flights inherently safer.

“Through the use of Casia G, DroneUp will be able to remove visual observers – creating a path to more economical scaling of their operations while simultaneously improving safety,” said Jon Damush, CEO of Iris Automation.

Because the FAA does not yet have regulatory standards for BVLOS flights, companies like Zipline have gotten away with them via individual waivers or approvals. Until that changes—which it soon could—that’s the likely path for DroneUp, too.

The FAA is very picky about awarding BVLOS permissions. But Zipline was able to secure its approval by flying millions of BVLOS miles in sub-Saharan Africa. DroneUp could do the same by demonstrating its airspace visibility system in a controlled or limited environment—or, it could try flying somewhere with looser BVLOS restrictions.

“The technology behind Casia G for BVLOS has the potential to be a game-changer in demonstrating that delivery in more populated areas can be as convenient and secure as it currently is in rural environments,” explained DroneUp CTO John Vernon. “Through this partnership DroneUp can dramatically scale operations, freed from restrictions.”

Currently, DroneUp and Walmart operate services out of 36 store-based hubs across seven states, upholding the promise Walmart made about a year ago. According to the world’s largest retailer, that translates to about four million eligible customers. 

Yet the network made only around 6,000 deliveries in 2022—very respectable by drone delivery standards, but far from the kind of market capitalization the firms are eyeing. The collaboration with Iris could capture more of those dormant shoppers. 

According to Walmart, it has about 4,700 stores within 10 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population, meaning its current 1.5-mile delivery radius reaches just a fraction of them. Adding BVLOS capabilities would expand that range, and therefore the network’s reach, exponentially. Not only that, but it would allow more Walmart stores—particularly those in dense urban areas—to double as drone delivery hubs.

Before that happens, DroneUp will need to prove to the FAA that its airspace visibility system is legit. But if it does, the Walmart-DroneUp network could shatter 2022 figures.

The post DroneUp Introduces AI-based Air Traffic Control System appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

As the FAA and state and local authorities work to commercialize drone delivery, the industry faces another looming challenge: unit economics.

Even after food delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash got big, it took years for those companies to reach profitability. Ultrafast delivery startups, meanwhile, have struggled to even remain in business. Drone delivery presents a similar obstacle: ensuring that each trip turns a profit.

It’s a challenge Los Angeles-based A2Z Drone Delivery is looking to take on with its new flagship long-range delivery drone, the RDSX Pelican. Unveiled this week, Pelican is expected to have a maximum range of nearly 25 miles with an 11-pound payload. For comparison, that’s about double the round-trip range of Alphabet’s Wing, one of the largest drone delivery firms in the world.

The extended range is part of what allows A2Z to reduce operational costs and improve unit economics. It’s achieved via Pelican’s hybrid VTOL airframe, which relies on fixed wings to provide more efficient flight. And crucially, the design has no control surfaces, like ailerons, elevators, or rudders—they’re replaced by a multirotor arrangement that provides stability.

The removal of control surfaces, which traditionally serve as stabilizing mechanisms in aircraft, was strategic. Pelican’s simplified design gets rid of those common points of failure, which allows it to stay in the air longer between maintenance and repairs. It also does away with servo motors, a common feature on other drone models that can be tedious to replace.

That reduction in downtime is the main driver of Pelican’s low operating costs, which amount to around 9.5 cents per pound per mile when the drone is fully loaded.

“Delivery drones are uniquely capable of transporting payloads faster, cheaper, and more sustainably than traditional vehicles or ships,” A2Z wrote in a blog post. “While many last-mile terrestrial or seaborn deliveries are already possible with unmanned aerial vehicles, the unit costs of those deliveries need to continue to fall for the industry to truly scale.”

Another key feature of Pelican is its reconfigurability. The standard model comes with A2Z’s recently introduced Rapid Delivery System 2 (RDS2), a winch and tether system that can be installed on most heavy-lift drones. An “off-the-shelf” solution, RDS2 is compatible with just about any retailer’s packaging so long as the parcel is smaller than 16x12x12 inches.

The system will also feature a patent-pending auto-release mechanism that autonomously releases packages when they touch the ground.

RDS2 is geared for scenarios where the drone cannot land, allowing it to complete deliveries from altitude. But for heavier deliveries, customers can elect for a simple servo-release mechanism that airdrops packages near the ground. That configuration limits Pelican’s range to about 12.4 miles but increases its max payload to around 17.6 pounds.

Customers can also opt for a customized cargo bay with mission-specific features, like digital cameras for aerial mapping. Other use cases for Pelican include residential delivery, logistics support, inspections, search and rescue, sample collection, and more.

All Pelican models are now available for pre-order starting at $29,000 and are FAA Part 107 compliant, with a takeoff weight below 55 pounds. Orders will be fulfilled on a first-come-first-served basis, with initial deliveries slated for next month.

The post A2Z Introduces Long-Range Delivery Drone appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A growing number of U.S. federal lawmakers are pushing for a total ban on drones made by China’s Da-Jiang Innovations, better known as DJI.

Already, the company’s drones have been blacklisted by the Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce, and House Republicans are now looking to add them to the Federal Communication Commission’s Covered List. They’ve been outright banned from use by the Florida government and law enforcement agencies. And now, another state has done the same.

A new piece of legislation passed in Arkansas will prevent public entities, like law enforcement agencies, from using drones manufactured by “covered foreign entities,” a list that includes only Russia and China—and by extension, DJI. 

But unlike the Florida law, which is currently being challenged as an “unfunded mandate” as it will require agencies to rebuild their drone fleets out-of-pocket, Arkansas Act 525 will give public entities four years to remove the drones from service.

The rule was introduced in the Arkansas state legislature under the same grounds as bills being introduced in the federal government: national security. Like Reps. Elise Stefanik (D-New York) and Mike Gallagher’s (R-Wisconsin) Countering CCP Drones Act, lawmakers relied on unfounded accusations that DJI drones are spying on U.S. citizens and government activities.

“[DJI is] an extraordinarily bad actor,” said Rep. Brit McKenzie, one of the legislation’s cosponsors. “It’s a Chinese military company. We can call it 16 things under the sun, [but] that’s really what it is.”

McKenzie added that DJI drones can “link into devices, networks, and mainframes,” while DJI has reiterated that users have total control over what data is transmitted and has said specifically in a press release that it is not a “Chinese military company.”

“Any position or concern solely based on country of origin limits competition, innovation, and the availability of technology,” a DJI spokesperson told the Arkansas-Democrat Gazette.

It appears McKenzie is also worried about DJI drones’ low cost, positioning the ban as a national security measure and warning, “I have to think that that’s by design or intention.”

But the Arkansas lawmaker also claimed that protectionism did not factor into the ban, stating, “It’s not a protectionist bill. It’s a safety bill.”

DJI drones are known to be widely used among public safety agencies, with some estimates placing the firm’s market share close to 90 percent. In Florida, agencies have already scrapped hundreds of drones and are now faced with an unfavorable choice: build a new fleet with their own money, or go without drones and risk public safety. In short, they’re not happy.

“You can’t measure what these drones have brought to officer safety,” Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Col. Robert Allen told lawmakers at a hearing in March.

So far at least one Arkansas law enforcement agency, the Little Rock Police Department, has said it will use its drones as much as possible until replacements are needed, per the Gazette.

In cases where an agency believes its drones will last longer than the four-year phase-out period, a waiver would allow it to keep them in service. But like Florida’s legislation, the Arkansas rule does not allocate state funding to help agencies replace their defunct aircraft.

“A lot of these folks spend their own time building out these drone programs, often after buying their own drone, to familiarize themselves with it and to become proficient with it,” said Chris Fink, CEO of Fayetteville, Arkansas-based Unmanned Vehicle Technologies, which supplies public safety agencies with drones from both foreign and domestic manufacturers.

Fink criticized the lack of a funding mechanism for local government and law enforcement to rebuild their DJI-less fleets, arguing that the state should have devoted more time to that aspect of the rule.

It’s possible that, much like Florida’s rule, Act 525 is challenged on the grounds of being an unfunded mandate, placing an undue burden on law enforcement agencies to finance their own public safety technology. 

However, because it doesn’t require agencies to ground their DJI drones immediately, the Arkansas rule may have a little more staying power than its counterpart.

The post Arkansas the Latest State to Implement DJI Drone Ban appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

There are plenty of ways to measure the success of drone delivery firms: trip volume, coverage area, regulatory approvals, and so on. But if you’re looking at sheer value, one U.S. company reigns supreme.

China’s DJI holds the world’s highest valuation for a drone firm at $15 billion (though it depends who you ask). But Bay area-based Zipline is hot on its heels, having just raised $330 million at a $4.2 billion valuation—greater than any U.S. drone company or any drone delivery company globally.

“We recently closed our Series F funding round at an increased valuation, which involved several new and existing investors,” a Zipline spokesperson told FLYING. “We are well capitalized to continue to grow our operations, including launching our new home delivery service. We look forward to continuing to build the world’s first logistics system that serves all humans equally and brings faster and more environmentally friendly delivery to anyone, anywhere.”

First reported by Forbes, Zipline’s Series F raise brings its total funding to about $821 million. The company did not name a lead investor, but it said in a statement that the round included participation from both new and existing investors. The firm’s current backers include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Katalyst Ventures, and a host of others.

“We look at Zipline as the future of robotics,” Andy Wheeler, general partner at Google Ventures, told FLYING in a statement. “We think it’s pretty clear that there is going to be a massive transformation in instant delivery over the next 10 years towards automation and zero emission logistics. Zipline is at the forefront of that revolution and is poised to lead.”

• READ MORE: Zipline Drone Delivery Just Got a Massive Upgrade

Citing an April 10 filing in Delaware corroborated by two sources, Forbes reported that Zipline’s latest funding round—which concluded April 28—priced the company’s stock at $40.20 per share for a valuation of $4.2 billion, a 55 percent increase over its previous mark.

The filing also included a potential extension of $20 million, which would bring the total capital raised in the firm’s Series F to $350 million. That may or may not be baked into the round.

The timing of Zipline’s raise may not be a coincidence. It comes just over a month after the company announced its next-generation delivery system, P2, which will make use of small delivery “droids” in addition to drones.

Whereas current Zipline drones—or Zips—float their payload to the ground using a parachute, P2 will see the Zip lower a smaller droid, which can autonomously orient itself in the air, on a tether. That will allow the firm to deliver to tightly defined or hard-to-reach drop-off locations, such as a front doorstep.

P2 will also bring some helpful new hardware to partnering businesses. The biggest functions like a drive-thru window—Zipline’s droid can dock on a sled, sliding into the building to collect orders and back out to await pickup by a Zip. The system will also include a dual-use charging and docking station.

• READ MORE: Zipline Receives FAA Part 135 Carrier Certificate

Zipline’s P2 Zips will have a maximum payload of 8 pounds and a maximum range of 24 miles, capable of completing a 10-mile delivery in 10 minutes. And what’s more, the drones will be able to land and charge at any dock in the network, effectively extending that 24-mile range.

This year, the firm will conduct around 10,000 test flights with 100 aircraft before rolling P2 out to customers. So far, there hasn’t been any update on when test flights will begin. But Zipline already has an array of partnerships in place to get it off the ground when the time comes.

One, a longstanding arrangement with the government of Rwanda that reached new heights in December, will use the P2 system to deliver in and around the nation’s capital, Kigali. Another fast casual restaurant chain, Sweetgreen, will facilitate P2 deliveries via Zipline’s marketplace. And two other U.S.-based firms—Michigan Medicine and MultiCare—will deliver prescriptions to hospitals, doctors’ offices, and even patients’ homes.

That wide range of partnerships is what sets Zipline apart—and why the firm is valued so highly. 

Given the regulatory gridlock taking place around U.S. drone laws, the firm smartly targeted early operations in sub-Saharan Africa, where restrictions are looser. It’s been flying in Rwanda since 2016—long before any commercial drone operations popped up in the U.S.—and also operates services in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire.

The ability to fly its solution in authentic settings gives Zipline a massive advantage over many of its U.S. competitors, who have largely been limited to test flights in controlled environments. It’s given the firm proof of concept, which has likely helped it draw investors.

But it’s also served Zipline well from a regulatory standpoint. The firm currently owns the most expansive FAA Part 135 air carrier certification of any U.S. drone firm, one that allows it to fly over people, in controlled airspace and, most importantly, beyond the operator’s visual line of sight (BVLOS) within a 26-mile round trip range.

It’s difficult to overstate how crucial that certification will be for Zipline moving forward. It’s not the only drone firm with Part 135 air carrier approval—Wing, UPS Flight Forward, Amazon Prime Air, and Causey Aviation Unmanned are the others—but it has far more real-world experience than those companies. 

So far, that’s translated to services in Utah, Arkansas, and North Carolina. But there isn’t really a cap on where and how Zipline flies in the future, unlike, for example, Walmart and DroneUp, which are currently operating in seven states under an FAA waiver. Once it expires, DroneUp will need to either certify its aircraft or secure a new exemption to continue operating.

So, while Zipline’s U.S. presence isn’t yet as robust as Walmart and DroneUp’s operation, it has the flight experience, regulatory approvals, and financial backing needed to surpass it. That’s the formula for the highest valuation in U.S. drone delivery to date.

The post Drone Delivery Firm Zipline Raises $330 Million at $4.2 Billion Valuation appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Mike Gascoyne has climbed the Himalayas. He’s completed a 3,200-mile crossing of the Atlantic by himself. He’s spent over 25 years at the senior technical management level in Formula 1, working for teams around the world. But Gascoyne’s next challenge might be his biggest.

MGI Engineering, founded by Gascoyne in 2003, has served the motorsport industry for decades now—and even launched its own F1 team, Caterham. Now, the firm is pivoting to a new focus: aerospace, specifically electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) cargo drones.

“I come from one of the most challenging [industries] in F1,” Gascoyne, a world-renowned F1 engineer, told FLYING. “So I think that’s what I actually like, is that having come from F1, it’s coming into something that’s equally challenging.”

The challenge of working in the nascent eVTOL industry cannot be understated. Given the ambiguous and shifting standards for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), certifying the technology is not easy. And commercialization is likely still years away.

Still, Gascoyne sees opportunity: “To be perfectly frank, the aerospace industry has kind of stagnated and spent the last 20 years designing black aluminium. And Formula 1 as an industry, because of its competitive nature, has really had to push the boundaries of weight reduction and what it can do to ensure that their cars are competitive.”

According to Gascoyne, aviation was on MGI’s radar from the very start. His philosophy has been to separate the firm’s technology from any one industry, which means designing solutions not just for motorsport and automotive, but also aviation and maritime.

“We’re essentially a high-end design consultancy,” he explained. “We’re not launching this necessarily to be an OEM. We’re not launching a product range…we’re looking to partner with people to develop this type of vehicle, but I think it’s the application of our technology and design philosophy that’s the core of what MGI is.”

In particular, Gascoyne believes he can take the concepts of aerodynamics he picked up over the decades and apply them to cargo drones.

“The aerospace world needs to reduce weight in aircraft,” he remarked. “And specifically in eVTOL, where due to power density and battery weight you’re right on the limit of being able to make aircraft that have a workable payload and range, what you absolutely have to do is design the lightest possible structure. So it became a very natural fit for us.”

MGI ramped up the development of its cargo eVTOL design in 2019 after being acquired by air taxi maker Vertical Aerospace, expanding its team to 25 full-time engineers. By November 2021, the company was once again independent. But its focus on drones never went away.

Now, the firm has officially launched its Mosquito cargo drone technology demonstrator, unveiling its solution to the world for the first time this month. MGI’s demonstration at eVTOL Insights’ London conference on April 19 featured a small, lightweight drone with a maximum payload of about 44 pounds. But Gascoyne is thinking much, much bigger.

According to him, MGI is developing two different Mosquito models. The first will look a lot like this month’s demonstrator, capable of hauling up to 44 pounds between 30 and 100 miles, depending on the design.

But that model wasn’t developed until after the demonstration, which Gascoyne felt was indicative of a viable use case for small cargo drones. The original plan, and one MGI continues to prioritize, was to design a larger drone capable of carrying up to 1,100 pounds, greater than any model currently on the market.

The key difference between the designs is the delivery mechanism—the smaller Mosquito features a detachable pod that can be dropped off autonomously, while the larger version will have an internal fuselage built to fit standard pallet sizes.

Beyond that, though, the models are quite similar. Both feature the same aerodynamic configuration drawing from F1 engineering, with the same fuselage, battery module, and other internal structures—one is simply larger.

However, Mosquito’s most intriguing design concept is its configurability. The larger and smaller models each feature eight rotors and four tilt wings, allowing them to transition from vertical takeoff to winged flight. Alternatively, they can be configured with tilt rotors on either wing.

The goal, Gascoyne explained, is to make Mosquito a plug-and-play system—one that can be used by multiple people and organizations for different applications. That, he said, will enable scale, much like it does for the automotive industry.

“When you’re looking at making five or 10,000 of a small, hybrid, lightweight composite vehicle that’s far more akin to the specialist sports car market than it is to aerospace…no one makes 5,000 aircraft in aerospace,” he said. “Whereas if you look at your Ferrari and McLaren and the specialist manufacturers, that’s exactly what they’re doing.”

Gascoyne is eyeing a few early potential applications for the Mosquito system. Medical delivery will be a particularly attractive use case, he said, because of its high price per mile. Ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore deliveries, where an eVTOL would replace a ferry or helicopter, are also on his radar.

“If you talk to people in the industry and in the Navy, they’ll tell you that a lot of helicopter flights they do with very large, expensive helicopters, 50 percent of them are delivering cargoes under 30 kilograms. Which makes absolutely no sense from a sustainability point of view,” he quipped.

Gascoyne also wants to focus on rural deliveries rather than urban ones, despite the higher value of the latter. That’s because of the inherent safety risks involved in urban deliveries, which would involve flying over people and whizzing past skyscrapers. In his view, failure in an urban setting could undermine customer confidence in the safety of eVTOLs.

“I think it’s very necessary that the introduction of this technology is done safely and gains the acceptance of people, because nothing’s going to be worse than having vehicles coming down in urban areas,” he hypothesized.

The MGI founder is also dead set on facilitating cargo deliveries before thinking about transporting human passengers. Simply put, companies that can solve the range and payload issues with cargo eVTOL will eventually move into passenger eVTOL, he said. But starting with cargo will be the best way to demonstrate Mosquito’s capabilities.

“Do you want to take 10 Lamborghinis off the road, or 10,000 delivery vans?” Gascoyne implored.

For now, MGI will focus on building up a safety record by flying thousands of hours with cargo eVTOLs. Eventually, though, the firm will turn its attention to other applications, most likely after Mosquito receives certification. That could be Gascoyne’s biggest obstacle yet.

“The certification challenge will be a very great one,” he acknowledged. “But I’m also convinced that that’s not to say you just do what you currently do—you’ve got to challenge and push ahead.”

Gascoyne is no stranger to taking on big challenges, having jumped between an array of F1 companies each with their own design philosophy. He’s summited the Himalayas. He’s sailed the Atlantic.

The eVTOL industry, though, is one humans have yet to conquer. Gascoyne will look to be the first.

The post F1 Engineering Gives Lift to Cargo eVTOL Drone Design appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Da-Jiang Innovations, better known as DJI, may have poked the bear.

The Chinese drone manufacturer, which has drawn scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers at the state and federal levels and was blacklisted by the Department of Defense, could soon be banned from government use entirely if a bill introduced Wednesday by Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) passes.

The legislation, dubbed the Countering CCP Drones Act, calls for the Federal Communications Commission to add DJI to its “covered list”—essentially, a group of companies with which the U.S. government refuses to do business. The list, which also includes partly state-owned Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE Corporation, cites them as threats to national security.

The addition of DJI to the Covered List would prevent it from doing business with the U.S. government and its contractors and prohibit the FCC from authorizing its equipment.

“DJI drones pose the national security threat of TikTok, but with wings,” Stefanik warned. “The possibility that DJI drones could be equipped to send live imagery of military installations, critical infrastructure, and the personal lives of American citizens to China poses too great a threat. Allowing this practice to continue in the U.S. is playing with fire. This Chinese-controlled company cannot be allowed to continue to operate in the U.S.”

Federal and state-level actors have been sounding the alarm on DJI for years, claiming that the firm’s drones are being used to spy on government secrets, such as by flying over military bases.

Do these claims hold water? It’s possible. But, at present, there is no conclusive evidence the drones are collecting and transmitting data back to China. DJI has also repeatedly denied any links between itself and the Chinese government or military, saying that it is “disappointed” by the bans in the U.S.

However, some of the company’s claims are in doubt. The Washington Post, citing a report from security and surveillance industry research group IPVM, revealed last year that DJI had in fact received funding from “several state-backed investors,” namely:

• The state-owned Guangdong Hengjian Investment Holding
• The state-owned SDIC Unity Capital fund
• The Shanghai government-run Shanghai Venture Capital Guidance Fund
• And the state-owned China Chengtong Holdings Group

In response, DJI spokesman Adam Lisberg did not deny the report, saying, “DJI is privately held. The company is solely managed by and majority-owned by the founder team. Shareholders other than the founders do not participate in the company’s management and operation.”

Whether that funding translates to government or military involvement is another story. But the opaque response was unusual for DJI, which has a history of pushing back strongly against claims of government ties.

That’s exactly what the company did when the U.S. government levied another accusation against it—that DJI drones were being used to surveil Uyghur Muslims, an ethnic majority in China’s Xinjiang region facing an ongoing genocide. The accusation also landed DJI and seven other Chinese companies on a U.S. investment blacklist.

While feasible, the link between DJI and the Chinese government’s activities in Xinjiang is unconfirmed.

“It’s very unfortunate. We’ve stated unequivocally that we have had nothing to do with treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang,” said Adam Welsh, the firm’s head of global policy.

U.S. lawmakers have echoed these concerns and others, including DJI’s reportedly large market share among casual U.S. drone users and government-backed programs. In a statement introducing Wednesday’s bill, Stefanik claimed that over half of drones sold in the U.S. are made by DJI.

CNBC estimated that the company has close to a 70 percent market share worldwide, dwarfing its rivals.

“U.S. intelligence services have warned that DJI poses a serious national security threat due to the level of sensitive information it collects and the potential for Beijing to access that data,” said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican, who is also leading the fight to ban TikTok. “Despite mounting evidence, the U.S. has lacked a consistent and comprehensive approach to addressing the potential threats posed by a company that might be operating as a Huawei on wings. That would end by passing the Countering CCP Drones Act.”

Carr is correct in saying that DJI drones are capable of collecting sensitive information – most are built with high-resolution cameras and can be equipped with additional sensors like thermal imagers or LiDAR. 

That information can also be transmitted to a ground station via DJI’s Lightbridge system. But data obtained by the drone—unlike data about its location and identification—can be encrypted, and data sharing can be turned off entirely. It can also be operated without an internet connection.

So, while it’s not out of the question that China could be spying on us through DJI, there has yet to be any conclusive evidence brought forward by lawmakers who support a ban. Proving the link between the two won’t be easy. But speculation alone may be enough to force the U.S. government’s hand.

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