WASHINGTON — The FAA has announced Phase 2 of its BEYOND program, adding up to eight new lead participants to test larger cargo drones, longer routes and flights above 400 feet. The expansion doubles the program from 8 to as many as 16 participants.
What Phase 1 produced
Launched in October 2020, Phase 1 logged 70,563 flights, 48,383 of them beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). That data was supposed to feed directly into Part 108, the long-awaited rule that would let commercial operators fly BVLOS routinely without a waiver.
The rule that isn’t
Part 108 remains unfinished. The FAA missed its June 2026 deadline, leaving delivery, inspection and agricultural drone operators dependent on visual observers or one-off waivers. Administrator Bryan Bedford said Phase 2 “will expand the partnerships and operations needed to address remaining challenges” — which the industry read as: more testing, no date.
For marine and waterfront operators — dock inspections, marina surveys, coastal monitoring — routine BVLOS is the single regulatory change that would turn drones from a hobbyist tool into infrastructure. We’re still waiting.