In a groundbreaking move for U.S. aviation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently approved commercial drone flights without visual observers in the airspace surrounding Dallas. The historic decision allows Zipline International and Wing, part of Google’s parent company Alphabet, to conduct drone deliveries beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) while maintaining a safe distance using Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) technology.
The FAA’s official statement states: “In this system, industry manages the airspace under strict safety oversight by the FAA.” This represents a significant departure from typical drone operations, where pilots must maintain constant visual contact with their aircraft.
A Wing spokesperson explained that the latest approval brings a key advancement: the ability to manage shared airspace using UTM. The company previously received its BVLOS approval to operate without visual observers in December 2023.
“Our authority to manage airspace with UTM allows us to share airspace with other complex, commercial BVLOS drone operations,” says a Wing spokesperson. “The recent news enables BVLOS operators to overlap and avoid conflicts via UTM. This is a remarkable milestone on the road to ever larger BVLOS operations.”
Safety remains a top priority for BVLOS operations. Wing’s approach includes flying in low-usage airspace over populated areas and conducting extensive aviation outreach. The company has a holistic strategy that focuses on avoiding potential conflicts before flights take off and uses in-flight detection and avoidance systems for additional safety.
The integration of UTM technology is critical for this new phase of operations. UTM services allow companies to share data and planned flight paths with other authorized airspace users. “This allows operators to safely organize and manage drone flights around each other in shared airspace. All flights will be below 400 feet and away from manned aircraft,” the FAA statement said.
The UTM is seamlessly integrated into Wing’s existing drone fleet. With the recent approval, the operators’ UTM systems can now communicate and coordinate more effectively, allowing them to share airspace. The Wing spokesperson explained: “This is coordinated through the Linux Foundation’s InterUSS platform’s automated open source testing, which confirms that each operator meets the criteria and is interoperable. When both companies conduct a BVLOS flight, they will digitally separate from each other. The industry manages airspace sharing through UTM under FAA oversight.”
In terms of operational stats, Wing’s BVLOS-approved drones have a payload capacity of approximately 2.5 pounds and serve customers within a six-mile radius of their nest.
The development is in line with a growing trend in drone delivery, with the number of packages delivered by drone increasing by more than 80 percent from 2021 to 2022, reaching nearly 875,000 deliveries worldwide in 2023, according to a 2023 report by McKinsey & Company, which also notes that the FAA had approved BVLOS operations under certain conditions and in certain geographic locations without the need for visual observers at seven test sites for UPS Flight Forward and Zipline starting in September 2023.
The FAA expects the first flights using UTM services to begin in August 2024 and plans to issue additional permits in the Dallas area shortly. The development opens up new business opportunities not only for drone deliveries, but also for other drone services such as infrastructure inspections.
Looking ahead, the FAA is working to publish the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to normalize UAS BVLOS, which would allow drone operators to expand their operations while maintaining the same high level of safety as traditional aviation. “We are on track to publish the NPRM later this year following strong support from Congress in the FAA’s recent reauthorization,” the FAA concluded.
The approval represents a significant step forward for the drone industry and demonstrates how modern traffic management systems can enable multiple drone service providers to share airspace safely and efficiently. As regulations evolve and operations expand, drone deliveries could offer significant sustainability benefits. The McKinsey report also highlights that emissions per package from drone deliveries are only 15 to 20 percent of the amount emitted when delivering individual packages by an internal combustion engine vehicle.
As the industry evolves, such developments are likely to accelerate the integration of drones into everyday life, transforming various sectors from delivery services to infrastructure management. The combination of regulatory advances, technological innovations and potential environmental benefits makes drone deliveries a promising solution for the future of logistics.
