Dive Brief:
- The Federal Aviation Administration announced a new interim policy that grants blanket permission to certain commercial drone companies to fly their drones below 200 feet.
- The new policy specifically applies to the approximately 45 companies that have already received FAA approval for flying commercial drones.
- While this policy doesn't help companies without current FAA permission, it does remove some steps for companies already approved, as they can now do test runs and perform other operations easier than before.
Dive Insight:
This announcement could have major implications for commercial agriculture drone companies, such as Empire Unmanned, the first agriculture drone company to receive FAA commercial approval. Other agriculture drone companies are more than likely in the hunt for FAA commercial approval as well, so this and future policies could eventually have a significant impact on the role of drones in modern agriculture.