FAA “authorises UTM-based multi-operator BVLOS flights in Dallas ahead of schedule”

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports it has authorized commercial drone flights without visual observers in the same Dallas-area airspace.

“The authorizations for Zipline International and Wing Aviation allow them to deliver packages while keeping their drones safely separated using Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) technology,” according to the FAA. “

The authorisations have been issued ahead of the original milestone for the programme, which wwas planned for August this year.  The initial operations will inform FAA efforts to authorize additional UTM services, including improved situational awareness and enhanced cybersecurity. They also will support the FAA’s work to develop UTM rules that allow wide-scale BVLOS drone operations without special authorizations

The FAA is expected now to release several more authorisations of this type.

The companies began testing the UTM system with BVLOS flights in the Dallas area in 2023, initially with simulations, reports the FAA. “When live testing began, drones operated in separated airspace. They safely conducted thousands of flights before the FAA issued the authorizations enabling flights in shared airspace. All flights occur below 400 feet altitude and away from any crewed aircraft.

According to Jarrett Larrow, Regulatory and Policy Lead at the FAA’s UAS Integration Office. “These public-private partnerships are key to safely integrating drones into our National Airspace System.”

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

Dallas is one of the UTM Key Sites identified by the FAA for evaluating operating procedures and technologies between operators and UAS Service Suppliers (USSs), working together to obtain the necessary exemptions to operate BVLOS services.  “The FAA is also exploring how it will recognize the capabilities of USSs for the safety and efficiency benefits they provide,” says the agency.  “Data and information from operations at the key site will inform policies in the critical path to the FAA’s BVLOS rulemaking, which will provide a regulatory approval path for UTM services to be used more broadly within the NAS. Key site operations will occur in Class G airspace at altitudes up to 400 feet AGL.”

Earlier this month, as reported in Unmanned Airspace, Wing and Manna delivery drones began to operate together within the AllianceTexas Innovation Zone in Dallas, using ASTM standards to strategically deconflict live flights in a commercial environment.

According to a Linkedin post from Joseph Rios, Chief Technologist, Aviation Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center: “The system is designed such that a company can build this strategic conflict detection service for its own use, like Wing does. Or an organization can partner with a service supplier, like Manna does with ANRA Technologies….Multiple service suppliers have a shared governance agreement to ensure interoperability and common understanding of requirements and responsibilities. I’m catching a case of the vapors!!!”