FAA mulling over commercial drone initiatives: sources

Washington

US AVIATION regulators are talking to drone makers and service providers about testing commercial drones that can fly beyond an operator's visual line of sight, currently banned for safety reasons, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

The potential partnerships between the Federal Aviation Administration and industry would be a milestone in developing unmanned aircraft that could be used for a variety of business applications such as delivering packages, monitoring crops or inspecting energy transmission pipelines.