The FAA gave its approval for the firm to do operations that were outside the line of sight.
Amazon has been granted clearance by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its delivery drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). Amazon made the announcement in a blog post that now that the obstacle has been overcome, the business believes it is able to fly further and extend its drone service, which will allow it to provide customers with speedier delivery and a wider assortment of products.
The Federal Aviation Administration has, up until this point, only permitted Amazon to fly drones to the extent that they could be seen from the ground. Spotters or pilots would be able to ascertain that drones were not causing any interference with planes in this manner. The limitation, on the other hand, severely restricted the distance that the drones were able to travel.
In order to go beyond that, Amazon stated that it has spent years creating “onboard detect-and-avoid technology.” The Federal Aviation Administration received engineering information from it, which included details about operation, maintenance, and performance. After that, flight tests were carried out in the presence of FAA inspectors in the vicinity of airplanes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon in order to “demonstrate how the drone safely navigated away from each and every one of them,” according to Amazon.
The business intends to extend its delivery area around its drone facility in College Station, Texas, now that it has received approval for BVLOS from the government. Drone deliveries are scheduled to be incorporated into the company’s larger delivery network later in the year 2024.
A month ago, Amazon made the announcement that it will be discontinuing drone deliveries at one of its initial test sites in Lockeford, California. However, the company did not indicate the rationale for this decision. At the same time, it announced that it would begin delivering packages using drones in the West Valley and the metropolitan area of Phoenix.