Today, DroneUp, announced that they had been selected to sit on The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rule Making Committee (ARC) to participate in the development of beyond line of sight drone flights. John Vernon, DroneUp’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), will represent DroneUp on the ARC.
Announcing a Walmart investment last week, DroneUp will develop a scalable drone delivery solution for the global retailer, enabling real-world and practical applications that drive widespread adoption. Leveraging their expertise with UAS technology and logistics, DroneUp will assist ARC in defining performance-based regulatory requirements to standardize safe, affordable, and sustainable BVLOS drone operations at scale.
“DroneUp is honored to assist regulators with BVLOS recommendations that will work in conjunction with Remote ID and waivers,” said John Vernon, DroneUp’s CTO, “We look forward to working with the committee to enable practical applications that will drive safe drone flight services across all industries.”
The ARC represents a collaboration between regulators and UAS industry experts who will provide BVLOS recommendations to the FAA within the next six months. At a minimum, the ARC’s recommendations must address long-line linear infrastructure inspections, industrial aerial data gathering, small package delivery, and precision agriculture operations, including crop spraying. The action memo for the charter details the purpose, background, objectives, tasks, procedures, operations, public record and participation, and duration of the charter.
“BVLOS will enable commercially viable retail delivery and is essential to the expansion of fully autonomous drone flights,” said Carl Smit, DroneUp’s Chief Strategy Officer. “We believe the collaboration of UAS industry leaders will help the FAA more rapidly pave the way for advanced drone flight services. We are honored and look forward to re-inventing the future with the ARC.”
