Amazon gets federal approval to expand drone deliveries
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is giving Prime Air additional permissions that allow it to operate drones for more deliveries in a wider area.
FAA regulations require that all commercial drone operators are able to maintain a line of sight to their drones until it approves a technology that can safely enable drones to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), a term used in aviation to describe flying a drone where the remote pilot can't see it directly with their own eyes.
Instead, a remote pilot relies on instruments or technology to monitor and control the drone at all times. FAA approval for Amazon to operate drones BVLOS will allow Prime Air to further expand drone deliveries and lays the foundation for the e-tailer to scale drone delivery operations to more locations in the U.S.
To obtain this permission, Amazon says it developed a BVLOS strategy, including an onboard detect-and-avoid technology it has spent years developing, testing, and refining. The approval process included Amazon submitting crucial engineering information to the FAA and conducting flight demonstrations in the presence of FAA inspectors to show how the system works in real-world scenarios, such as in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon.
This new authorization and new permissions will allow Amazon to expand its existing drone delivery area in College Station, Texas. Later this year, Amazon plans to begin integrating drone deliveries into its delivery network, meaning drones will deploy from facilities next to Amazon same-day delivery sites.
Amazon initially received an Air Carrier Certificate from the FAA in 2020 that allowed the company to operate as an airline and deliver small packages via drone. With that certification and the newly granted permission to fly beyond the line of sight, Amazon says it is preparing to scale drone delivery for customers.
"Our vision has remained unchanged since we started working on Prime Air: to create a safe and scalable way to deliver packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using highly autonomous drones," Amazon said in a corporate blog post. "To achieve our goal of delivering 500 million packages, per year, by drone, by the end of this decade, we knew we had to design a system capable of serving highly populated areas and that was safer than driving to the store. It’s taken years of inventing, testing, and improving to develop these breakthrough technologies, and now, on the heels of regulatory approval and cutting-edge technology, we’re excited to launch this next chapter for Prime Air."