Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)

Drone data collection, surveying, and infrastructure inspection company Soaring Eagle Technologies has added another Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waiver to its collection – this one permitting virtually unlimited geographic range of mission operation.

Diversified drone services company Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU) surpassed the 13,000 mark for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights during another phase in its long-running aerial inspections of Xcel Energy transmission infrastructure.

American Robotics has been granted a new exemption by the FAA which enables the company to not only operate its autonomous Scout drone system for research, development, crew training, and market surveys, but also for full-scale commercial operations.

Switzerland’s specialized medical drone transport company RigiTech is breaking new ground in France, where it has received the first-ever approval to fly regular beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights of patient samples and other materials between two French laboratories.

Drone services, hardware, and training company Volatus Aerospace has been granted a special certificate by regulator Transport Canada to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions without a flight observer.

American Robotics (AR) says it has received a Part 107 waiver from the FAA for expanded automated beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. The company’s Scout drones can now operate autonomously at ranges of up to 10 miles, allowing for more efficient inspections over large industrial sites and linear assets such as pipelines, railways, and electrical transmission lines.

Utility giant American Water is taking its drone program up a notch with a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver to fly Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). The waiver will allow American Water drone operators to fly their aircraft up to four miles away.

A group of aviation and drone sector companies in the UK are banding together to work toward increased use cases and frequency of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights across the nation, and propose policies to regulators permitting wider deployment of those missions.

Flight navigation tech specialists Iris Automation and Sagetech Avionics are teaming up to provide a one-stop shopping solution to ensure cooperative and noncooperative detection and air risk mitigation for both drones and crewed aircraft.

Leading US power utility Dominion Energy has obtained a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver to operate open-ended beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) inspections at over 40 plants using drones from Skydio, whose regulatory team helped secure the approval.

Aerial geophysical mapping specialist Overhead Intelligence has used a drone equipped with Iris Automation safety avionics tech to operate a combined extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) magnetometer survey mission over a wide area of Canadian mineral deposits.

The process to seek approvals to fly over people and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in 27 European Member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland has become easier for pilots operating the senseFly eBee X fixed-wing mapping and surveying drone.

North Dakota calls itself “the Silicon Valley of drone innovation.” And this summer, the state will be able to do full justice to that tag when six companies simultaneously fly their drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) for applications ranging from security surveillance to utility inspections.

In a first for Japan, renewable energy firm afterFIT has received approval to fly autonomous drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) at night. The approval has been granted by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism.

Talk about beyond visual line of sight. Swoop Aero has won approval from Australia’s Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) to operate a centralized facility that will allow employees of the drone delivery company to remotely pilot up to five different UAVs over three different continents at once.

American Robotics, a leading provider of fully automated drone services to enterprise customers, has obtained authorizations to operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights at seven work sites across the US, bringing the company’s total to 10.

After achieving similar feats in the United States, Australia, and Israel, drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto has received its first Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver under the new European drone regulations. This waiver for Percepto drones comes from the Dutch civil aviation authority (ILT), while Germany and Belgium are expected to follow suit.

The FAA has granted Iris Automation a second waiver for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) autonomous drone operations on behalf of the City of Reno. But while the previous waiver required the use of Iris Automation’s advanced detect and avoid solution Casia X, this one utilizes the company’s Casia G ground-based solution (pictured above).

The Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI) says it will allow drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto to operate its drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) at three industrial sites in the country, including one which is owned by national water company Mekorot.

The FAA’s UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), which was formed to advance the regulatory path toward autonomous, safe, and routine BVLOS drone missions, has published its final report.

As part of its UAS integration initiative called BEYOND, the FAA has approved Iris Automation to fly a small drone autonomously beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) in a rural, unpopulated area south of Reno, Nevada.