FAA Moves Toward Certifying Specific Drones For Package Deliveries

U.S. aviation regulators plan to craft new safety standards for specific unmanned-aircraft models, the biggest step yet toward eventually authorizing widespread delivery of packages by drones.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s proposal, disclosed on Monday in a Federal Register filing, is couched in dry bureaucratic language but amounts to a major policy and regulatory win for Amazon.com Inc. and other companies seeking to gain approval for various types of drones for small-package delivery fleets.

The FAA for the first time formally laid out a policy intended to vet the design and reliability of drones, similar to how it determines the safety of gliders and other light aircraft.

By announcing the initiative and seeking public comment, the agency started down the path to certify drones as a “special class” of aircraft—essentially seeking to give them some of the regulatory certainty that airliners, business jets, helicopters and small private planes enjoy.