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UPS announced that it became the first company in the United States to obtain permission from the country's Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) to launch an “unmanned aerial vehicle fleet”.
More specifically, the FAA issued the standard certificate to a subsidiary of UPS, UPS Flight Forward. The paper will allow the company to launch commercial delivery of goods using drones throughout the country without any restrictions. UPS will be able to deliver parcels by UAVs to points outside the direct field of view of the UAV operator; the weight of the goods may exceed 25 kg (the maximum weight is not reported), and flights can be carried out at night.
However, ordinary Americans will not be able to use this service yet: UPS intends to focus first on the needs of medical institutions, and then serve the business.
The company has already completed its first commercial delivery to the WakeMed hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina.
There is still a long way before the full deployment of the UPS UAV delivery system. The company has a lot of work to do: expand the drone fleet, build a control center for UAV flights and install ground-based collision detection and prevention systems. Nevertheless, thanks to the full permission from the FAA, the company is now one step ahead of all its major competitors.
Amazon received a certificate from FAA in June. The paper only allows testing of Amazon Air drones. In August, the company turned to the regulator to relax some requirements for Amazon UAV flights, noting that so far it intends to carry out flights only during the day and in areas with low population density.
In April, the Alphabet division responsible for developing the UAV-based merchandise delivery project received a license from the FAA for only one of its employees. As a result, at the end of September, the company announced launch of a pilot project in a small town in Virginia, where Alphabet, in partnership with the Walgreens pharmacy chain, will deliver food, beverages and medical supplies to citizens.
source: gizmodo.com
More specifically, the FAA issued the standard certificate to a subsidiary of UPS, UPS Flight Forward. The paper will allow the company to launch commercial delivery of goods using drones throughout the country without any restrictions. UPS will be able to deliver parcels by UAVs to points outside the direct field of view of the UAV operator; the weight of the goods may exceed 25 kg (the maximum weight is not reported), and flights can be carried out at night.
However, ordinary Americans will not be able to use this service yet: UPS intends to focus first on the needs of medical institutions, and then serve the business.
The company has already completed its first commercial delivery to the WakeMed hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina.
There is still a long way before the full deployment of the UPS UAV delivery system. The company has a lot of work to do: expand the drone fleet, build a control center for UAV flights and install ground-based collision detection and prevention systems. Nevertheless, thanks to the full permission from the FAA, the company is now one step ahead of all its major competitors.
Amazon received a certificate from FAA in June. The paper only allows testing of Amazon Air drones. In August, the company turned to the regulator to relax some requirements for Amazon UAV flights, noting that so far it intends to carry out flights only during the day and in areas with low population density.
In April, the Alphabet division responsible for developing the UAV-based merchandise delivery project received a license from the FAA for only one of its employees. As a result, at the end of September, the company announced launch of a pilot project in a small town in Virginia, where Alphabet, in partnership with the Walgreens pharmacy chain, will deliver food, beverages and medical supplies to citizens.
source: gizmodo.com
