Federal authorities approved a plan Tuesday that will allow delivery drones to share the airspace over Dallas, a development that could help commercialize the new industry.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it will allow two companies to use a newly developed unmanned aircraft system traffic management technology (UTM) to govern the flights, the same way the national air traffic control system controls conventional aircraft.
FAA previously had allowed the same two companies to fly unmanned aircraft over relatively long distances — outside the operator’s line of sight — which was another important hurdle for the industry to overcome.
If the drones become popular, they could provide another way to electrify short-haul deliveries and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation systems, said Costa Samaras, director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University.
