Drone services company DroneUp has been selected to the FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Committee to advance regulations for flight beyond visual line of sight, the FAA BVLOS ARC.
The BVLOS ARC was announced earlier this month during the FAA and AUVSI’s UAV Symposium. The government and industry consortium will provide insight and recommendations to the FAA over the next six months.
The selection of DroneUp to the ARC follows last week’s announcement that retail giant Walmart has invested in DroneUp to advance their drone delivery program. As they implement retail drone delivery at scale, Walmart will be a major stakeholder in the drone ecosystem. “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,” says a DroneUp press release.
John Vernon, DroneUp’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), will represent DroneUp on the ARC. “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.”
“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.”
“The FAA’s existing regulatory framework must change to better support the long- term viability and sustainability of this evolving aviation sector,” says the FAA’s ARC Charter. “However, these are challenges the entire UAS community must confront together, because they have implications not only to safety, but also security and society at large.”