Model Airplanes

After combing through 149 proposals for its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program — which seeks to operationalize drones in safe and unique ways — the U.S. Department of Transportation, in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration, selected 10 winners May 9.   

The pilot program, which was announced in October 2017 as a White House initiative, will provide state and local governments an opportunity to partner with private sector entities to accelerate the integration of drones in the U.S.

Overall, the program aims to tackle the most pressing challenges to safely and effectively use drones. Each pilot program will be tailored to a particular purpose.

“Data gathered from these pilot projects will form the basis of a new regulatory framework to safely integrate drones into our national airspace,” said DOT Secretary Elaine Chao.

Here are the 10 entities selected to participate, along with a brief explanation of their pilot project.

1. Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma will partner with CNN to test flying drones beyond a pilot’s line of sight, according to Gizmodo.

2. City of Reno (Nev.) will partner with Flirtey, a drone delivery service, to test the safety of delivering medical supplies such as defibrillators, EpiPens and opioid overdose antidotes via drones, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.

3. City of San Diego will partner with UC San Diego, Qualcomm and Uber to test real-world applications of drones, such as food delivery within minutes, boarder surveillance and transporting blood tests by

Article source: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/supply-chain/meet-the-10-participants-in-the-us-drone-program.html

Boeing Co., the world’s largest aerospace concern, stands to lose roughly $20 billion in business with Iran after the U.S.’s controversial withdrawal Tuesday from the 2015 nuclear agreement with the Middle East nation.

Boeing has agreements to sell 110 planes worth roughly $20 billion to Iranian airlines, based on list prices. The U.S. withdrawal, which pledges punishment for banks and businesses doing transactions in Iran, stretches to Boeing’s French rival Airbus SE

AIR, -0.36%

 , which had a multibillion-dollar sale planned, and to parts maker General Electric Co.

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Licenses for Boeing

Article source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/boeing-will-lose-out-on-20-billion-in-iran-deals-as-airbus-ge-impacted-2018-05-08

In the near future, if you’re vacationing in the Outer Banks, North Carolina and you need an emergency blood transfusion, a drone could buzz over from the mainland and drop off a pint at the hospital or medical clinic where you’re laid up.

Zipline, a medical drone delivery startup headquartered in San Francisco, has been operating a nationwide emergency blood delivery service in Rwanda for the past two years. The startup has been waiting to bring the model to the U.S., but the Federal Aviation Administration’s restrictive rules, which ban flying drones over populated areas and beyond line of sight from the pilot, prevented Zipline and other delivery drone companies from operating in the U.S. But on Wednesday, the FAA announced that 10 U.S. states have been approved to launch a three-year pilot program, easing the current rules in an effort to jumpstart the commercial drone industry in the U.S.

Alphabet, Apple, Airbus, FedEx, Intel, Microsoft, Uber, and Qualcomm are among the winners, along with smaller companies like Zipline, Flirtey, and PrecisionHawk. Amazon, which has multiple patents for drone delivery, was not approved to participate in the program, Reuters reports. China-based DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer, also did not make the cut.

During the press conference, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced that the 10 pilot projects will test different commercial drone applications to assess how the federal government should regulate nationwide commercial use.

The companies that are part of the pilot range from Flirtey, which will be airdropping defibrillators

Article source: https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/faa-approves-us-drone-pilot-program.html