The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was formally established with the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 in response to the growing aviation industry. Prior to this, multiple agencies were created to support different aspects of aircraft operations within the United States’ National Airspace (NAS). It was becoming increasingly clear that a streamlined agency was needed to ensure safe air travel. Since then, the FAA has been responsible for shaping the framework of our nation’s air travel industry. This includes everything from vehicle safety, pilot training and registration, traffic management, and more.

With the dawn of the 2000s, the FAA recognized a shift in the aviation industry and a need to implement a broad range of improvements. In 2007, the FAA launched a program to modernize the NAS, called the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Soon thereafter, nontraditional aviation, particularly drones, began to impact the NAS. The FAA initially designated six public entities to help develop regulations to integrate drones of all sizes into the NAS. The work done by these first six facilities, the FAA, and other independent parties launched a booming drone industry.

The most recent step the FAA is taking for drones under the NextGen program is to develop comprehensive Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) parameters. For the most part, a drone must remain within the visual line of sight of its pilot at all times. However, as the industry has progressed, this limitation has prevented drones from reaching their full potential. BVLOS is widely considered the final goal for the drone industry to unlock its ultimate capabilities. Therefore, the FAA has partnered with several federal, private, and public drone industry specialists to develop the Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM).

To accomplish this, the collaborating entities, under the leadership of Anra Technologies, opened the UTM Key Site in the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX area. Founded in 2005 out of the Washington D.C. metro area by Amit Ganjoo, Anra Technologies develops cloud-based platforms to manage drone operations. Anra is collaborating with seven other drone industry experts, mostly those in the delivery sector like Wing and Zipline, to implement actionable BVLOS drone frameworks. “This includes,” Mr. Ganjoo said, “collaborating with industry to validate content, formats, and messaging, defining performance metrics, developing guidance material to support implementation of the standards, and managing conflicting operations in accordance with relevant UTM standards and business rule development.”

The participating parties first began with simulations of BVLOS drone flights. These simulations featured multiple drones flying within the same shared airspace at the same time to test collision avoidance measures. The first real-world BVLOS trial of multiple drones flying simultaneously using the NextGen UTM program took place at the Key Site in June 2024, with drone delivery experts Wing and Mana. The trial was a success, proving that the collaborating parties are ready to move on to the next stage of testing.

This next stage will see multiple drones flown BVLOS simultaneously within a shared airspace. What is important to recognize is that at no time will this shared airspace overlap with the airspace used by manned aircraft. The NextGen UTM program is designed for low-altitude airspace, under 400 feet—an area free of manned aircraft. The only time a manned aircraft would be in low-altitude airspace is during takeoff or landing procedures. However, this is not an issue, as drones are completely restricted from entering areas around airports. There is still a long way to go in testing the systems. “As always,” said Praveen Raju, a program manager in the FAA’s NextGen Office, “safety comes first, and we require exhaustive research and testing before giving the green light.”

As the FAA continues to evolve and modernize airspace management through initiatives like NextGen, the integration of drones into the NAS represents a pivotal step forward for aviation. With collaboration across public, private, and federal sectors, the industry is poised to unlock the full potential of drones, enabling safer and more efficient operations. While challenges remain, the progress made so far demonstrates the industry’s commitment to ensuring that innovation in drone technology is both safe and sustainable. The successful implementation of BVLOS operations will undoubtedly shape the future of air travel, making once-unimaginable possibilities a reality.

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