Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations”. This rulemaking would create new operational and design requirements for unmanned aircraft (up to 1,320 lbs) issued a special airworthiness certificate, enabling routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations without waivers or exemptions.
According to the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:
“This action would normalize certain low altitude unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations, while ensuring the safety and efficiency of the United States airspace. It is the next step in integrating UAS into the national airspace system (NAS), providing for significant safety, societal, and economic advantages and benefits. This action is expected to dramatically expedite the introduction of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAS operations in the NAS. Using consensus-based standards, this action would establish a regulatory process for issuing a special airworthiness certificate (SAC) for unmanned aircraft (up to 1,320 pounds), as well as the acceptance of their associated elements. It would create new operational and design requirements for unmanned aircraft issued a SAC, enabling routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations without waivers or exemptions. The rulemaking would prescribe a new BVLOS rating for the remote pilot certificate. It would also build new operating rules for UAS cargo delivery for compensation or hire under the new part. Finally, this action would create a defined regulatory approval pathway for third-party services, to include UAS Traffic Management (UTM) service suppliers.”
I do not expect that I will be covering this rulemaking in
any depth, but I will at least mention its publication in the respective “Short
Takes” post.
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