News, deep dives, and analysis — every BVLOS story, newest first.
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.
Last updated August 23, 2026 — the feed below updates with every new story.
Uber and Zipline aim for one million drone deliveries a day by the end of 2029, roughly 230 times Zipline's current global rate, while Part 108 sits unpublished at OIRA.
A FOIA release names 1,000+ agencies the FAA cleared for drone first responder flights in 10 months, more than in the previous seven years combined.
DOT chief of staff Pete Meachum says the BVLOS rule was slowed deliberately to avoid technology lock-in. Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton warns the uncertainty freezes drone investment. Part 108 is six months past its deadline and under White House review.
The FAA signed a nationwide FONSI for Part 135 drone delivery, setting a 1,150-flight hub cap and 600-foot setback while 16 state AGs demanded a full EIS.
DoorDash earned FAA Part 135 certification and launched DoorDash Air. The company says aircraft details come later, but its own video already shows the airframe and the propulsion testing.
Flytrex integrated Nash's routing engine across all its Dallas-Fort Worth sites. Nash now decides which orders fly and which go to a human courier.
Wing opened its first Florida market with Walmart in Greater Orlando today, in a state where Walmart's previous drone delivery program shut down in 2024 when the economics stopped working.
BayCare will build a drone delivery network with Zipline across Florida’s Tampa Bay region, with the first flights scheduled for late 2027. The partnership puts lab samples, medications, and critical supplies in the air between hospitals and straight to patients’ homes. Service starts in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, then expands. It runs on the same…
Beyond Visual Line of Sight: operating a drone past the point where the pilot can see it. Almost everything the industry wants to scale — delivery, docked patrols, infrastructure inspection, drone-as-first-responder — is a BVLOS operation, which is why one acronym carries so much weight.
With authorization, yes — through waivers and exemptions granted case by case. More than 1,000 public-safety agencies were cleared in ten months, and delivery operators fly under their own exemptions. What does not exist yet is routine BVLOS by rule.
The FAA rule that would turn BVLOS from a waiver into a routine authorization. Executive Order 14307's deadline expired February 1, 2026; the text reached White House review July 10. DOT calls the delay deliberate — writing today's tech into a decade-long rule is the failure mode they say they are avoiding. Operators say the uncertainty freezes investment. Both are right.
One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.
