[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":223},["ShallowReactive",2],{"en-post-faa-beyond-program-expansion-2026":3,"en-related-faa-beyond-program-expansion-2026":190},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"category":172,"date":173,"description":174,"draft":175,"extension":176,"image":177,"meta":178,"navigation":179,"path":180,"seo":181,"slug":182,"stem":183,"tags":184,"translation_slug":165,"updated":188,"__hash__":189},"en_posts\u002Fen\u002Fposts\u002Ffaa-beyond-program-expansion-2026.md","FAA Doubles BEYOND Drone Testing Program: 8 New Sites (2026)","Lucas Buzzo",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":164},"minimark",[10,14,17,22,29,32,46,48,52,55,58,60,64,67,121,124,126,130,133,135,139,141],[11,12,13],"p",{},"The U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA announced on August 27, 2026 that they will double the size of the BEYOND drone testing program, adding up to eight new state, local, tribal, or territorial lead participants. Phase 2 of BEYOND now shifts toward larger unmanned aircraft, higher altitudes, and longer beyond-visual-line-of-sight routes as the agency works toward its long-awaited Part 108 rule.",[15,16],"hr",{},[18,19,21],"h2",{"id":20},"background","Background",[11,23,24,28],{},[25,26,27],"strong",{},"BVLOS"," (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) is any drone flight where the remote pilot cannot see the aircraft with their own eyes, requiring detect-and-avoid technology, ground-based radar, or other mitigations to replace the pilot's own vision. BEYOND is the FAA's testbed for proving those mitigations work at scale.",[11,30,31],{},"The program launched on October 26, 2020, succeeding the earlier UAS Integration Pilot Program. In its four-year Phase 1, participants logged 70,563 total flights, including 48,383 flown beyond visual line of sight, before the phase concluded in 2024. Phase 2 began in 2025 after Section 920 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 authorized and funded the program's continuation through 2029, with a mandate to expand beyond the original scope into public safety missions, on-airport operations, and other complex air operations.",[11,33,34,35,40,41,45],{},"BEYOND's data feeds directly into ",[36,37,39],"a",{"href":38},"\u002Fwhat-is-bvlos\u002F","Part 108",", the BVLOS rule the FAA has proposed to replace today's case-by-case waiver system with standardized, repeatable approval criteria — the same rule drone delivery operators like ",[36,42,44],{"href":43},"\u002Ffaa-drone-delivery-nationwide-clearance-2026\u002F","Amazon, Wing, and Zipline"," are waiting on to scale beyond their current Part 135 authorizations.",[15,47],{},[18,49,51],{"id":50},"whos-flying-now-and-whos-next","Who's Flying Now — and Who's Next",[11,53,54],{},"BEYOND currently has eight lead participants: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority in Tennessee, the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership in Virginia, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the North Dakota Department of Transportation, the City of Reno in Nevada, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Each operates as a lead entity coordinating multiple flight partners, from public safety agencies to infrastructure inspectors, under FAA-issued waivers rather than one-off approvals.",[11,56,57],{},"Doubling that roster to as many as sixteen lead participants means the FAA is deliberately widening the geography and use cases feeding its rulemaking data. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy framed the expansion as a competitiveness move: \"America leads the world in aviation, and this expansion will help keep it that way,\" he said, adding that the department is \"cutting through barriers, advancing innovation and making sure the next generation of aviation technology is developed, tested and built right here in the United States.\" New participants will be selected at a future date; the FAA has not yet published a firm application deadline.",[15,59],{},[18,61,63],{"id":62},"what-phase-2-actually-tests","What Phase 2 Actually Tests",[11,65,66],{},"Phase 1 was largely about proving BVLOS could work at all — package delivery routes, pipeline and utility inspections, and agricultural spraying flown without a visual observer. Phase 2 raises the ceiling: larger unmanned aircraft, higher operating altitudes, and longer-range flights, alongside public safety missions and on-airport operations that put drones closer to piloted traffic than most current waivers allow.",[68,69,70,89],"table",{},[71,72,73],"thead",{},[74,75,76,80,83,86],"tr",{},[77,78,79],"th",{},"BEYOND phase",[77,81,82],{},"Years",[77,84,85],{},"Flights logged",[77,87,88],{},"Focus",[90,91,92,107],"tbody",{},[74,93,94,98,101,104],{},[95,96,97],"td",{},"Phase 1",[95,99,100],{},"2020–2024",[95,102,103],{},"70,563 (48,383 BVLOS)",[95,105,106],{},"Proving BVLOS feasibility at small scale",[74,108,109,112,115,118],{},[95,110,111],{},"Phase 2",[95,113,114],{},"2025–2029",[95,116,117],{},"Ongoing",[95,119,120],{},"Larger aircraft, higher altitude, public safety, on-airport ops",[11,122,123],{},"That shift matters because Part 108, as drafted, still has to answer hard questions about how BVLOS drones share airspace with manned aircraft near airports and how larger unmanned systems get detected and separated automatically. Phase 2's expanded participant pool is designed to generate the real-world data the FAA needs before it can finalize those provisions.",[15,125],{},[18,127,129],{"id":128},"what-this-means-for-drone-pilots","What This Means for Drone Pilots",[11,131,132],{},"For commercial operators already flying under BVLOS waivers, the expansion signals the FAA intends to keep building the evidence base for Part 108 rather than stall it — a reassurance after a year in which the proposed rule has drawn heavy industry pushback over its restrictiveness. For public agencies, universities, and tribal governments not yet involved, it opens a fresh window to become a lead participant and gain waiver access years ahead of a final rule. For pilots and hobbyists outside the program, the practical effect is indirect for now: BEYOND doesn't itself change what you can legally fly, but its data will shape how permissive — or restrictive — Part 108 ends up being when it finally takes effect. Regulators outside the U.S., including EASA and the UK CAA, have historically watched FAA BVLOS data closely when calibrating their own specific-category risk frameworks, so the ripple effects of BEYOND Phase 2 are unlikely to stay confined to American airspace.",[15,134],{},[136,137],"faq",{":items":138},"[{\"question\":\"What is the FAA BEYOND program?\",\"answer\":\"BEYOND is the FAA's ongoing drone integration research program, launched in 2020, where selected state, local, tribal, and territorial lead participants fly BVLOS operations under waivers to generate the safety data the FAA needs to write permanent rules like Part 108.\"},{\"question\":\"How is BEYOND Phase 2 different from Phase 1?\",\"answer\":\"Phase 1 (2020–2024) proved basic BVLOS use cases like delivery and inspection could work, logging over 70,000 flights. Phase 2 (2025–2029) tests larger aircraft, higher altitudes, longer routes, public safety missions, and on-airport operations closer to manned traffic.\"},{\"question\":\"Can my organization apply to join the BEYOND program?\",\"answer\":\"The FAA is selecting up to eight new lead participants to double the program to sixteen. As of this announcement, the agency has not published a fixed application deadline; interested state, local, tribal, or territorial entities should monitor the FAA's BEYOND program page for screening details.\"},{\"question\":\"Does the BEYOND expansion affect the Part 108 BVLOS rule timeline?\",\"answer\":\"Not directly — Part 108 remains in the rulemaking process with no final rule in effect as of August 2026. BEYOND Phase 2 generates additional real-world flight data that the FAA is expected to draw on before finalizing Part 108's provisions.\"}]",[15,140],{},[11,142,143],{},[144,145,146,147,153,154,153,159],"em",{},"Sources: ",[36,148,152],{"href":149,"rel":150},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.transportation.gov\u002Fbriefing-room\u002Ftrumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-announces-major-expansion-faa-beyond",[151],"nofollow","U.S. Department of Transportation"," | ",[36,155,158],{"href":156,"rel":157},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.faa.gov\u002Fuas\u002Fprograms_partnerships\u002Fbeyond",[151],"FAA BEYOND Program",[36,160,163],{"href":161,"rel":162},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bloomberg.com\u002Fnews\u002Farticles\u002F2026-08-27\u002Fus-expanding-long-range-commercial-drone-testing-program",[151],"Bloomberg",{"title":165,"searchDepth":166,"depth":166,"links":167},"",2,[168,169,170,171],{"id":20,"depth":166,"text":21},{"id":50,"depth":166,"text":51},{"id":62,"depth":166,"text":63},{"id":128,"depth":166,"text":129},"news","2026-08-27","The FAA is doubling its BEYOND drone testing program, adding up to 8 new state, local, and tribal sites for BVLOS flights as Part 108 rulemaking continues.",false,"md","\u002Fimages\u002Fwhat-is-bvlos.jpg",{},true,"\u002Fen\u002Fposts\u002Ffaa-beyond-program-expansion-2026",{"title":5,"description":174},"faa-beyond-program-expansion-2026","en\u002Fposts\u002Ffaa-beyond-program-expansion-2026",[185,27,186,187,39],"FAA","BEYOND program","regulation",null,"z0tHzTkjJnHe-cXuP-POaYPfO2LQ_OkVTVBiDhty2Q8",[191,202,204,214],{"title":192,"description":193,"date":173,"category":172,"image":194,"slug":195,"tags":196,"author":6},"Airbound Raises $37M for Delivery Drones That Beat Trucks","Bengaluru startup Airbound raised $37M and will fly 10,000 daily drone deliveries across Andhra Pradesh, India, aiming to beat trucking on cost. Here's how.","\u002Fimages\u002Fdoordash-air-drone-delivery-2026.jpg","airbound-37m-series-a-drone-delivery-2026",[197,198,199,200,201],"drone delivery","eVTOL","funding","india","startup",{"title":5,"description":174,"date":173,"category":172,"image":177,"slug":182,"tags":203,"author":6},[185,27,186,187,39],{"title":205,"description":206,"date":207,"category":172,"image":208,"slug":209,"tags":210,"author":6},"Archer's First Downtown LA Vertiport Lands at L.A. LIVE","Archer Aviation and AEG will build downtown LA's first air taxi vertiport at L.A. LIVE, ahead of the 2028 Olympics. Here's what was announced and why.","2026-08-26","\u002Fimages\u002Fevtol-air-taxi-test-flights-2026.jpg","archer-aeg-la-live-vertiport-2026",[198,211,212,213],"Archer Aviation","advanced air mobility","Los Angeles",{"title":215,"description":216,"date":207,"category":172,"image":217,"slug":218,"tags":219,"author":6},"FAA Noise Test Ranks Amazon's Delivery Drone Loudest","FAA noise testing found Amazon's Prime Air drone hits 88 decibels at 50 feet, louder than Wing (84 dB) and Zipline (79 dB). Here's why, and what it means.","\u002Fimages\u002Fdrone-delivery-noise-faa-test-2026.jpg","drone-delivery-noise-faa-test-2026",[197,220,221,222,185],"Amazon Prime Air","Wing","Zipline",1787873487663]