U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced\nthat the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded air carrier and operator\ncertification to an unmanned aircraft system (UAS, or drone) delivery company,\nUPS Flight Forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a big step forward in safely integrating unmanned\naircraft systems into our airspace, expanding access to healthcare in North Carolina\nand building on the success of the national UAS Integration Pilot Program to\nmaintain American leadership in unmanned aviation,\u201d said U.S. Secretary of\nTransportation Elaine L. Chao. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through the Department\u2019s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration\nPilot Program (IPP), the FAA has now approved a Part 135 operating certificate\nfor UPS Flight Forward. This allows the company to perform revenue-generating\npackage delivery activities within federal regulations. UPS Flight Forward may\nnow operate multiple drones under one certificate. Under Part 135, the company\ncan deliver vital healthcare supplies including by flying beyond visual line of\nsight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a participant in the U.S. Transportation Department\u2019s\nUnmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program, the North Carolina\nDepartment of Transportation (NCDOT) partnered with UPS Flight Forward. As the\noperator, they have been engaged in delivery of healthcare supplies around a\nmajor hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. The flights have focused on\nthe delivery of blood for potentially life-saving transfusions, as well as\nother medical samples for lab work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company demonstrated that its operations met the FAA\u2019s rigorous safety requirements to qualify for an air carrier certificate. This is based on extensive data and documentation, as well as test flights. Visit the FAA website for more information about the UAS IPP<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded air carrier and operator certification to an unmanned aircraft system (UAS, or drone) delivery company, UPS Flight Forward. \u201cThis is a big step forward in safely integrating unmanned aircraft systems into our airspace, expanding access to healthcare in North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-carolina","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13986,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13985\/revisions\/13986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}