Green light given to first commercial drones in the US

The US government has given commercial drones, the very first in the country access to begin operations around the country. Drones that monitor crops, control mosquito population, and deliver defibrillators are to be tested in the US airspace.

Ten commercial drones been have been chosen to tryout new ways for unmanned aircraft to be integrated into the skies. As a result of this,  Zipline has been contacted, they currently offer a blood-service delivery in Rwanda, and Apple. 

The Federal Aviation Authority in time past had tight rules concerning the use of drones, this is due to the fact a permit is needed to fly one and also the ban imposed on beyond line-of-sight flights and night time flying.  Currently, at the time of this post, more than one million drones and 90,000 pilots are registered with the FAA. 

The UAS(Unamanned Aircraft Systems) has been designed to solve some of the challenges of integrating drones into national airspace and being partIcularly concerned on how to limit risks to public safety

Amazon Rejected

Apple were chosen and immediately has been assigned with the duty to capture images of North Carolina by drone, Microsoft, Uber and Intel has also been involved in the project. But surprisingly, Amazon were not chosen even after applying to deliver goods via drones to shoppers in New York. Also DJI, the world leading non-military drones made lots of application but were rejected as well, this was reported by Reuters and has come as a shock as reason was not clearly stated for this.

The 10 chosen projects include:

• A government agency in Florida will make use of drones to help control mosquito poupulation
• A partnership will see The Choctaw Nation of  Oklahoma and CNN work together on flying drones beyond a pi line of sight
• Food delivery services will be tested by North Carolina and Flytrex
• FedEx will work with Memphis County Airport Authority to know level of security and infrastructure and also delivering parts via drones
• Medical supplies will be delivered by the city of Reno in Nevada in a partnership with Flirtey

The FAA stated that the 10 winners were picked from 149 proposals. For now, the full details of the trials has been undisclosed, but they have decided to give each applicants two-and-a-half years to run the trials, sharing some information with the FAA along the way. 

"Data gotten from this pilots will form the basis of a new regulatory framework to safety into our national airspace" said US secretary of transportation, Elaine Chao