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 The potential partnerships between the Federal Aviation
Administration and industry would be a milestone in developing
unmanned aircraft that could be used for a variety of business
applications such as delivering packages, monitoring crops or
inspecting energy transmission pipelines.
It also raises the likelihood that beyond-visual-line-of-sight
(BVLOS) technology will ultimately be accepted by new commercial
drone regulations that the FAA is working to finalize within the
next two years.
The proposed FAA rules unveiled in February would lift the current
near-ban on commercial drones. But the proposals, as written, still
would not allow for advanced operations such as package delivery
services championed by e-commerce company Amazon.com <AMZN.O>
because they require drones to remain within an operators visual
line of sight as a safety measure.
However, while the FAA works to finalize regulations, companies can
win agency approval to use commercial drones on a case by case
basis. Up to now, the agency has not approved drones capable of
flying beyond an operator’s line of sight.
Beyond-line-of-sight operations use on-board cameras to enable an
operator to make course changes to avoid obstacles, including other
aircraft.
The FAA's consideration of BVLOS operations comes amid intense
pressure from Congress and companies who say the technology,
originally developed for the military, is already being used in
other countries. Failure to adopt the technology, they argue, could
stifle the nascent U.S. market for commercial drones.
The agency has heard from lobbyists representing a broad industrial
base ranging from aerospace manufacturers Boeing Co <BA.N>, Airbus
Group <AIR.PA> and Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N>, high-tech firms
Intel Corp <INTC.O> and iRobot Corp <IRBT.O> to the national gas
pipeline and agriculture industries.
In an announcement that could come as early as next week, the FAA is
expected to set out plans for partnering with industry on commercial
BVLOS operations, according to the people familiar with the matter.
The agency would seek to limit safety risks by allowing flights only
under restricted conditions, such as uninhabited agricultural land
in remote locations.
A FAA spokeswoman declined to comment.
Sources said the new operations could be similar to BVLOS flights
that the University of Alaska has been conducting over the past five
years in remote regions above the Arctic Circle, where unmanned
aerial systems are used with FAA approval to map sea ice, monitor
marine life and inspect oil and gas installations.
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The partnerships would be the latest among several FAA moves in
recent months to ease restrictions on commercial drones in the
United States.
In April, the FAA loosened its requirement for outdoor testing to
occur at designated test sites, by granting Amazon approval to test
drones outdoors at a company-owned site. Amazon, other companies and
drone industry groups have also used a public comment period on the
proposed regulations to urge the agency to allow drones to fly
beyond line of sight.
"BVLOS technology has matured to the point that BVLOS operations are
now permitted in some of other countries... where operations have
been conducted for years, with high levels of safety," commented the
Small UAV Coalition, whose members include Amazon, Google Inc
<GOOGL.O>, and smaller drone companies.
The coalition asked FAA to permit certain BVLOS operations "in the
relatively near term", rather than waiting for the proposed rules to
be finalized over the next two years.
"The agency is likely to receive requests from small UAS operators
seeking to conduct (beyond line of sight) operations ... long before
the rule is finalized," Amazon said last week in a comment to the
FAA.
But the Air Line Pilots Association, which opposes beyond line of
sight operations because of safety reasons, said such operations
would come with "unacceptable risk."
"The use of an on-board camera cannot replace the awareness provided
by direct observation by the operator/pilot or designated visual
observer."
(Reporting by David Morgan, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Diane Craft)
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