US: FAA to award first drone airline licence in the next month: official

The US FAA expects to award the first licence to operate a drone airline in the next month, an official at the regulator said Wednesday. The agency decided last year that large-scale commercial package delivery operations by drones would need to meet the same safety and economic certification standards as other licensed US airlines. “In the next month we expect to announce we will have our first ... air carrier certificate for operating a drone airline,” FAA Office of Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Executive Director Jay Merkle said. “That is a major accomplishment for us and our partner.” He declined to name the partner, but to date, the only air carrier certificate application for a drone carrier listed on a US government website has come from Wing Aviation, a subsidiary of Google’s parent, Alphabet. FAA documents associated with the application said Wing Aviation was proposing to conduct package deliveries using small fixed-wing drones in a rural area of the US. “Operations enabled by this exemption will be the first of their kind – a convergence of prior experience the FAA has with both small UAS operations and air carrier operations,” the FAA said, in reference to unmanned aircraft systems. The regulator said granting approvals would be in the public interest, in a document dated April 2. FAA acting administrator Dan Elwell said Wing had already conducted successful trials of its delivery service in Virginia.<br/>