BVLOS

BVLOS — beyond visual line of sight — is the single capability the whole industry is waiting on, because nothing scales while a human must see the aircraft. Delivery, docked security patrols, inspection, drone-as-first-responder: all of it is BVLOS, and all of it currently runs on exceptions.

The rule that would change that is Part 108, and its story is a clock. Executive Order 14307 gave the FAA 240 days; the deadline passed February 1, 2026; the text has sat in White House review since July 10. DOT says the delay is deliberate — better slow than obsolete — while operators say the uncertainty freezes investment.

Meanwhile the exceptions have become an economy. The FAA cleared 1,000+ agencies for DFR flights in ten months and cleared drone delivery’s environmental path nationwide over sixteen state attorneys general. The ambition riding on routine BVLOS is not small: our drone delivery guide covers a market where Uber and Zipline talk about a million deliveries a day.

We track the rulemaking, the waivers and the operations in one place — they are one story with three fronts. The FAA desk carries the wider regulatory picture. Every BVLOS article lands in the feed below.