U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Expands BEYOND Program to Advance Drone Operations

Good news!

"The Federal Aviation Administration has doubled the size of its BEYOND program to help integrate drones into the national airspace system. The second phase will address public safety missions, on-airport drone activity and operations beyond visual line of sight."

"The FAA has launched Phase 2 of BEYOND, doubling the program’s size

Up to eight new state, local, tribal or territorial entities will join as leads

BEYOND Phase 1 logged more than 70,000 flights, including 48,000 BVLOS operations

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it is expanding its BEYOND program to support broader drone integration into the national airspace system and address challenges associated with advanced unmanned aircraft operations. ..."

FAA Expands BEYOND Program to Advance Drone Operations

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Announces Major Expansion of FAA BEYOND Program to Advance Drone Innovation (original news release)

Credits: IEEE USA Smartbrief

The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a new rule that would allow civilian aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the continental US

Good news! Long overdue!

Flying again faster across the US thanks to President Trump!

"The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a new rule that would allow civilian aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the United States if their sonic booms stay below a strict noise threshold at ground level. If finalized, the rule, along with another planned rule that would set landing and takeoff noise standards for supersonic aircraft, would end the 1970s ban on overland civilian supersonic flight. ..."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

FAA releases draft of new commercial supersonic flight regulations

FAA Supersonic Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (63 pages)

Welcome back the famous Concorde supersonic airplane

The US Federal Aviation Administration has announced a set of pilot projects for eVTOLs

Good news!

"The US Federal Aviation Administration has announced a set of pilot projects for a new species of aircraft. Most will test eVTOLs, or small, electric, drone-like aircraft that take off and land vertically rather than using a runway. The program will let companies such as Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation trial passenger flights, cargo delivery, and emergency services while regulators gather data." (Source)

Debris from the recent explosion of SpaceX’s Starship posed a greater risk to civilian plane flights over the Caribbean Sea than was publicly known.

Bad news!

Recent news suggest there are plans to build data centers in space and so on.

"According to FAA documents reviewed by WSJ, two airliners and a business jet declared fuel emergencies and flew through a temporary no-fly zone as air-traffic controllers scrambled to keep planes away from the debris.
The documents also said that SpaceX didn’t immediately inform the agency about the explosion through an official hotline. SpaceX declined to comment. After WSJ's article was published, SpaceX said the Journal’s reporting was misleading and described the piece as containing incomplete information."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

FAA Fast Tracks Rollout of Air Taxis

Good news! When will we see the first traffic jams in the air? 😊

"The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday it is launching a fast-tracked pilot program to speed up the rollout of air taxis.

Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation, both major players in the electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, space, said they are participating in the program. Shares of each were higher on Friday.

Officials said the commitment is expected to create high-paying manufacturing jobs, expand economic opportunities, and deliver futuristic air taxis to transform travel and product transport.

The action follows a Trump administration executive order calling for “American drone dominance,” beginning with this Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program."

Saturday, September 13, 2025 - Join The Flyover

FAA approves large commercial drone Beyond-Visual-Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS)

Good news! About time! 

Is the VLOS not a little bit outdated at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century? Oh, yes!

"The Federal Aviation Administration has approved “Beyond-Visual-Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS)” commercial flight for a large drone for the first time, the drone’s developer American Aerospace Technologies (AATI) has claimed. 

The AiRanger is described as an “unmanned aircraft system” (UAS). It is 3 metres long with a 5-metre wingspan. Its maximum take-off weight of 99kg with a 34kg payload. 

Its service ceiling is 15,000ft or 4,500m and the commercial aircraft is capable of 100kts.  ..."

FAA approves large commercial drone BVLOS use - Airport Technology

The Federal Aviation Administration will be looking at rules that have curbed drone deliveries

Good news!

"... Federal rules governing the use of drone aircraft are holding back companies interested in making deliveries that way, panelists said at the recent CES 2023 in Las Vegas. But help might be on the way this year in the form of revised regulations, says FAA official Abigail Smith ..."

Why drone delivery hasn’t taken flight in the US | Smart Cities Dive

Credits: IEEE USA Smartbrief

Samson Switchblade flying car is finally ready for takeoff

Good news! You get to build it even yourself from a kit!

"... Samson says the entire push-button conversion from street-legal trike to aircraft takes less than three minutes ...
Find an airstrip and take off, and the Switchblade's standard cruise speed is 160 mph (257 km/h), enabling a range of 450 miles (724 km) to a full 36-gal (125-L) tank of fuel. ...

Starting from an "estimated price" of US$150,000, the Switchblade is a fairly pricey machine, but Samson has already taken reservations for the first 1,670 and counting. ...

The Switchblade will sell as a kit aircraft, taking somewhere around 2,000 hours to build at home. ..."

Samson Switchblade flying car is finally ready for takeoff After 14 years of development, the Samson Switchblade – a fast, street-legal three-wheeler that converts at the touch of a button into a 200-mph (322-km/h) airplane – has been approved for airworthiness by the FAA. The team is now preparing for flight tests.

Federal Court Smacks Obama On Drones

Posted: 6/7/2017

Trigger

Just read Court Ruling: The FAA Can't Make You Register Your Drone. The U.S. Court Of Appeals for the district of Columbia Circuit could not have been more plain spoken about the incompetence of the Obama FAA. This new FAA regulation was highly controversial when it was promulgated and when it became effective in December of 2015. Obama’s FAA also apparently upset a long standing practice as to the regulation of model aircraft.

Obama Was An Awful Unlawful And Stupid President

This stupid ideologue of a president tried to retard an imminent technical revolution when his FAA came out with this drone registration mandate for consumers.

This case zeroes in on and magnifies what an incompetent president Obama was!

FAA Drone Regristation Nonsense

Posted: 12/15/2015

Big government never goes out of business until We The People need do something about it!

It is absolutely incredible that the big government U.S. Federal Aviation Administration wants to register every drone above a certain weight!!!

Instead of focusing and concentrating on offenders and allowing things to develop, this awful big government agency wants immediately full control.

This approach of basically registering every drone is so outdated!

Private Air Traffic Control For Civilian Drones

Posted: 10/27/2014

Trigger

Just read “Air Traffic Control for Drones - MIT Technology Review”

Keep Big Government Out

Don’t make the mistake with this disruptive technology to authorize a big government agency with air traffic control of civilian drones.

Have the private sector and the 50 states seek for solutions before an inflexible, bureaucratic, one size fits all is imposed by an agency like the FDA.

I trust the private sector to come up with much better solutions than a federal agency!

The FAA Is So Antiquated

Posted: 7/30/2014

Just read “There's No Flying in Drone School/Pilot-Training Programs Stay Grounded Due to FAA Rules’”

Future civilian drone pilots can train to fly, but the FAA would not allow them to actually fly drones. Before that, the FAA prohibited flying of private drones above a certain, ridiculous low  altitude and so on.

The FAA is one of those bloated, federal bureaucracies standing in the way of progress. When will Amazon be able to drop off packages by drone?

Does anyone remember the FAA’s huge, I believe, still ongoing failure to modernize air traffic control systems especially software?

President Reagan did not go far enough but to privatize much of its authorities and functions!

Wrong Big Government Approach To UAVs

Trigger

I have just read this article (German).

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) embarked on a lengthy and comprehensive top down approach to regulate UAVs (a.k.a. drones or unmanned aerial vehicles).

A Better Approach

The FAA should stay out of the way as much as possible. Like the Internet, this new technology should develop on its own without much government meddling.

The FAA should limit itself in the beginning to impose only some very limited safeguards to prevent accidents such as few off limits areas, perhaps overall size of drones etc.