FAA approves first fully automated commercial drone flights

U.S. aviation regulators have approved the first fully automated commercial drone flights, granting a small Massachusetts-based company permission to operate drones without hands-on piloting or direct observation by human controllers or observers.

Federal Aviation Administration’s decision restricts the operation of automated drones to rural areas and altitudes below 400 feet, but is a potentially important step in expanding commercial applications of drones for farmers, utilities, corporations mining companies and other customers.

It also represents another step in the FAA’s broader effort to allow large-scale flights by dropping case-by-case exemptions for specific vehicles performing specific tasks.

In approval documents posted to a government website Thursday, the FAA said that once these automated drone operations are carried out on a larger scale, they could mean “efficiencies for many industries. that power our economy such as agriculture, mining, transportation ‘and manufacturing segments.

The FAA previously allowed drones to inspect rail tracks, pipelines and some industrial sites out of sight of pilots or ground observers, provided those people were located relatively close.