Drones Coming to a Sky Near You

FAA gives UPS green light to ship medical products and specimens within the state of North Carolina

Over the past several years there has been much talk about the use of drones to make deliveries of packages to a home near you.  Many sceptics have been saying, “never going to happen, at least not in my lifetime.”  Others said, “Yes, we will absolutely see it happen and, in the very near future.”  Well, now we know the later response is actually more accurate.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), announced that UPS’ Flight Forward business unit received an immediate green light to ship medical products and specimens within the state of North Carolina covering various hospital campuses throughout the Tarheel state.  UPS stated this approval was a major step in enhancing services for the health care industry and believe it would obviously include other industries in the future.

UPS also stated that the FAA approval “has no limits on the size and scope of operations.”  UPS went on to say that they have already started limited flying under this new certification.

David Abney, UPS’  Chairman and CEO said “we’re going to move ahead quickly and expand rapidly.  It’s not going to be a small operation.”  Mr. Abney also predicted the first phase could include in excess of 100 hospital campuses.

The FAA approval was actually the second such drone use approval.  The first was given months ago to Alphabet Inc.’s Wing Aviation unit to fly a fleet of drones for consumer goods deliveries.  That specific approval however was restricted to a rural area around Blacksburg, VA., and required detailed scrutiny for similar future applications  elsewhere.

According to UPS, they believe their certification will offer faster and easier future approvals on a case by case basis.  If that is true, a competitive drone flying industry will be off the ground in the very near future.

Not to be outdone, Amazon and Uber Technologies are potential competitors still seeking FAA approval to initiate their drone delivery operations.  Drone operators can opt for broad certification’s such as UPS received, or they can respond to the FAA ‘s invitation to apply for a more targeted waiver or exemption under existing rules.  Whichever path they choose it’s obvious that more approvals will be forthcoming in the not-to-distant future.