United Parcel Service said on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT) that its drone subsidiary was awarded an airline certificate last week by the Federal Aviation Administration. Even before getting that designation, UPS Flight Forward, as the subsidiary is called, has operated more than 1000 flights at WakeMed's hospital campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. It can also fly drones at night - the company plans to do that after installing the necessary coloured warning lights on each machine. The airline certificate lets UPS fly drones carrying more than 55 pounds (25kg), "but we're not comfortable we have the hardware for that yet", Price said in an interview. Earlier this year, the FAA gave permission for a unit of Google parent Alphabet to make drone deliveries, but only in a tiny piece of southwestern Virginia.

Source: Stuff October 01, 2019 18:56 UTC