Regulations for Commercial Drone Operations Advance for 2022 and Beyond

In the U.S. alone, there are more than 314,000 registered commercial drones. In comparison, only 42,000 commercial drones were registered in the U.S. in 2016. As these numbers continue to grow across the globe, commercial drone operators expect regulations for autonomous aircraft to evolve as well. Most important for drone delivery services is enabling routine operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). There is also a need for integrating autonomous drones into the aviation ecosystem by implementing safe unmanned aircraft system (UAS) traffic management, or UTM.

The Federal Aviation Administration published rules for small UAS regarding remote pilot certification and operation in June 2016. Drones smaller than 55 pounds can, for the most part, carry out routine commercial operations under the Part 107 guidelines without a waiver. Some exemptions that are subject to waiver requirements are BVLOS operations and flights over moving vehicles.

In April 2021, the FAA put into effect the Operation of UAS Over People rule. “Under this rule, the ability to fly over people and over moving vehicles varies depending on the level of risk a small drone poses to people on the ground,” according to a statement the FAA provided to Avionics International. “Additionally, this rule allows operations at night under certain conditions.”

In its emailed statement, the FAA wrote: “Part 107 allows for a wide range of operations to occur safely. One example is drone-deliveries, which are allowed under Part 107 provided the operator follows certain conditions.” The FAA granted its first approval of BVLOS drone operations without onsite operators at the beginning of 2021. This approval was given to American Robotics for operating its Scout System, equipped with detect-and-avoid (DAA) technology to avoid collisions.

The FAA formed a new rulemaking committee in June 2021 to set out a regulatory path for safe and scalable BVLOS operations. The ARC’s final report and recommendations were published in March 2022.

“Our broad goal is to move from individual approvals and waivers to the predictability of operating by rule, especially for vital activities such as package delivery, infrastructure inspection and public safety,” the FAA shared in its statement. ”We’re working on regulations that would allow routine BVLOS operations.”

Sanjiv Singh, CEO of Near Earth Autonomy, explained that one issue for UAS operators with the current regulations is that vehicles over 55 pounds are limited to performing test flights at FAA-designated test sites. Based on his experience, the need for testing autonomous vehicles is even greater than anticipated.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has focused on developing a regulatory framework for a UTM system, also called U-space. The European Commission released a U-space framework last year, and U-space regulations will go into effect at the start of 2023.

A UTM system provider in Belgium, Unifly, has developed a configurable platform to plan and manage drone operations and enable in-flight communication with air traffic controllers. The company partnered with NAV CANADA, the Canadian air navigation service provider (ANSP), this past year. Unifly has also collaborated with ANSP Enaire, and has developed a UTM platform with Port of Antwerp—the first seaport in the world to manage its own airspace.

Manna Drone Delivery is currently operating at two locations in Ireland. So far, it is the largest drone delivery operation in Europe. Manna’s license to operate drones is issued by EASA and is valid for all of Europe, explained CEO and founder Bobby Healy—although they are still pre-scaling, he is confident that they will operate elsewhere in Europe by the end of 2022. The regulations that go into effect on January 1, 2023, support BVLOS operations throughout the EU, stated Healy.

“It’s pretty clear that the commercial scaling will happen in Europe before it’ll happen in the U.S.,” he said. EASA has embraced the UAS industry, which has also received significant support from governments across the EU. Healy explained, “EASA has made it clear what’s needed of a drone delivery company. It’s a stricter regime than what I’ve seen in the U.S.”

Ken Stewart, President and CEO of U.S.-based NUAIR (Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance), remarked that “the emerging regulatory framework is painstakingly slow.” The U.S. is “in danger of falling behind, and losing our global leadership position in aviation,” he added. “If you had asked me five years ago when we would be flying BVLOS and advanced UAS operations, I would think we’d have been there already.”

Stewart participated in the FAA’s BVLOS committee, the ARC, but stated that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) has not yet come out. That process could take more than two years, he said. “Even if that starts this year, we probably aren’t going to see a rule until 2025 or 2026.”

“Three or four years ago, we were really seeing the early adopters of drone technology,” said Brendon Bartholomew, President of Vector Solutions. Most clients were just starting to learn about the applications for UAS. Now, most of their new customers are already using drone technology in some way. Vector’s team works primarily with customers integrating UAS into their public safety programs.

The increasing number of drones in the airspace will eventually necessitate regulatory changes. “The management of these regulations is going to have to start trending towards being specific towards the drone environment,” Bartholomew stated.

WingXpand unveiled a unique drone model in April featuring a 7-foot, collapsible wingspan. WingXpand is currently performing test flights with clients, said co-founder and CEO James Barbieri. Deliveries of the WingXpand drone are expected to begin before the end of September 2022.

The team at WingXpand “are big advocates of the FAA’s focus and concentration on continuing to evolve the regulatory environment,” Barbieri added, “to balance the reality of making sure that we have safety and also all of the new missions and use cases.”

The company DroneUp began deliveries via drone in partnership with Walmart last year. The FAA’s regulations limit operations to within the visual line of sight of a visual observer. Tom Walker, founder and CEO of DroneUp, sees “a significant desire on behalf of the policymakers across the board to make changes and enable the industry to scale,” he told Avionics. “At some point, regulators have to acknowledge that we’re operating safely—not just us, but as an industry.”

Drone technology is constantly evolving, said John Vernon, DroneUp’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Vernon expects these changes to happen very quickly in the future, so the team at DroneUp has adopted a strategy that allows them to adapt their market approach as needed.

Drone delivery company Zipline recently received its Part 135 certificate from the FAA. Zipline also recently unveiled its new detect-and-avoid (DAA) system that uses acoustic-based technology onboard an autonomous aircraft—an array of microphones is installed on the wing of the aircraft to detect different noises.

Zipline has operated commercially for more than five years, and their electric drone has recorded over 325,000 commercial flights around the world. Zipline also launched drone delivery services last year in collaboration with Walmart, operating under Part 107.

Okeoma Moronu, Head of Aviation Regulatory and Legal Affairs at Zipline, was able to participate in the FAA’s BVLOS ARC. “If the FAA takes those recommendations on board and enables BVLOS operations,” she said, “there’s a ton of potential in the industry to rise to the occasion.”

UVL Robotics provides AI-enabled, drone-based logistics solutions. Its system revolves around smart package stations that enable automatic and precise drone landings for delivery operations. UVL is also the first company to receive a license for full BVLOS drone operations license from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK.

The company is also pioneering drone delivery services in the Middle East. The electric-powered drones can fly up to a range of 25 kilometers, and they operate completely autonomously from take-off to landing, shared Moosa Al Balushi, co-founder at UVL Robotics. “We’re going to start an experimental zone in Dubai,” he told Avionics in an interview. They will take a “quick approach to start BVLOS [operations] and enable drone delivery in the city.”

The team at UVL has met with the certification authorities in Oman, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, Balushi commented. “We are just waiting for the UTM to be ready for integrating different companies.” Balushi expects UTM implementation in cities to begin in the next two years or so.

Asylon Inc.’s drone solution, DroneSentry, is designed to perform autonomous security patrols, remote video surveillance, and pre-programmed response missions. In June 2022, Asylon announced that the FAA had granted them waivers for BVLOS operations at four sites in the U.S. According to co-founder and CEO Damon Henry, Asylon’s team is also actively working on detect-and-avoid technology.

There has been great progress with the regulatory framework for commercial drone operations, especially in the last couple of years. “We’re starting to see waivers come in; it’s a matter of when, and not if, at this point in the U.S.,” Henry said.