FAA clears Google’s drone delivery business for takeoff

An offshoot of Alphabet, Inc.’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers.

The subsidiary, Wing Aviation LLC, now has the same certifications that smaller airlines receive from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT). It plans to begin routine deliveries of small consumer items in two rural communities in Virginia within months, the company said.

“It’s an exciting moment for us to have earned the FAA’s approval to actually run a business with our technology,” Wing Chief Executive Officer James Ryan Burgess said in an interview. He called it “pivotal” both for his company and the drone industry in general.

Drone regulations still don’t permit most flights over crowds and urban areas, limiting where Wing can operate. But the approvals signed by the FAA on Friday and Monday give the company the ability to charge for deliveries of clients’ goods in Virginia and apply for permission to expand to other regions.

While scores of companies working in test programs have gotten FAA waivers to perform demonstration flights or to make deliveries over short distances, there has never been a drone company approved under the regulations designed to ensure safety at traditional charter airlines or smaller air-cargo haulers.

It required Wing to create extensive manuals, training routines and a safety hierarchy – just as any air carrier must do.

Companies receiving permission must also be majority owned by US citizens under long-standing restrictions imposed by the DOT.

The plan has received unanimous approval from local elected officials in mountainous southwest Virginia, according to Montgomery County Administrator Craig Meadows. (Bloomberg)