This week, drone delivery company Zipline was granted Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight.
That's a major milestone in efforts to extend the range of the domestic drone industry over U.S. airspace, and Zipline isn't the only drone operator to recently receive FAA approval.
It's a regulatory aim that the drone companies have been working towards for a decade and will pave the way for other companies to receive streamlined approval for their own drone flights beyond the visual line of sight.
Prior to "beyond the visual line of sight" approval, human observers were required to be stationed along the entire route a drone was flying to ensure that there was no interference with air traffic.
Now he says Zipline will be able to serve "hundreds of millions of people" in the U.S."It unlocks the scale of the technology so that everybody can benefit.
Persons:
Zipline, we've, Keller Cliffton
Organizations:
U.S, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, Phoenix Air Unmanned, Walmart, Amazon
Locations:
U.S