Amazon gets FAA BVLOS approval for Prime Air drone delivery

Amazon has gotten big news from US regulators that should help the online marketplace finally take its drone deliveries to another level: approval to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights across its Prime Air networks.

Amazon announced it had received Federal Aviation Administration approval for BVLOS operations, which it says will now allow it to scale drone deliveries in existing locations, and prepare for expansion elsewhere. The authorization should remove what has of late been arguably the biggest drag on Prime Air finally taking off over a decade after company founder Jeff Bezos first revealed his vision of UAVs quickly dispatching product orders to customers’ homes.

Though Amazon received relaxation of some of operational restrictions during a flurry of FAA announcements last autumn, it wasn’t granted the degree of liberty that drone delivery rivals like Zipline, Wing, and later DroneUp did. The major difference was in Prime Air — unlike those operators – having to continue assuring observers on the ground kept watch of UAVs being operated in BVLOS flight by the pilot. 

Removal of that condition has long been considered by the sector as requisite for expanding the breadth of existing networks, and extending those across the U.S.

With that approval now secured, Amazon will begin scaling its existing operation in College Station, TX, and launch Prime Air’s upcoming Phoenix, AZ with BVLOS flights. 

“It means more Amazon customers than ever before will be eligible to choose from thousands of items for drone delivery, including household essentials and beauty and drugstore products,” the company said in an announcement Thursday. “Later this year, drone deliveries will begin integrating into Amazon’s delivery network, meaning drones will deploy from facilities next to our Same-Day Delivery sites, which will provide Amazon customers with faster delivery of an even greater selection of items.”

Amazon – whose earlier preparations for Prime Air services had been dogged by hardware problems, and further slowed by staff layoffs sweeping the entire tech sector – said receipt of its BVLOS authorization came after it briefed regulators about the effectiveness of detect and avoid tech aboard its delivery drones.

“We then conducted flight demonstrations in the presence of FAA inspectors to show our system works in real-world scenarios – we flew in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon to demonstrate how the drone safely navigated away from each of them,” Amazon said. “We also provided extensive analysis and test data for our technology that further validated the safety of our system.”

With the resulting BVLOS approval, Amazon’s Prime Air now looks freed to begin making up for lost time – and leads taken by sector rivals – and pursue its “goal of delivering 500 million packages, per year, by drone, by the end of this decade.”