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The FAA filed the rule, “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations,” with the US Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on Jul. 10 for its review. Along with participating in the meeting process, VAI will be watching closely as the rule moves through review and will report to our members on its progress. OIRA review is one of the final stages in the federal rulemaking process before a rule may be cleared for publication.

The US General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract enables eligible federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government agencies to procure CNC.Live through a streamlined, prenegotiated purchasing vehicle. CNC.Live, CNC Technologies’ cloud-based platform, provides operators custom aerial surveillance, data transmission, and counterterrorism solutions.

The decision comes following a successful demonstration of the detection device at the annual Search and Rescue Exercise in San Antonio, Texas, in May. BlueFly can be quickly attached to a drone to help locate people in areas of thick foliage, low visibility, and tough terrain.

VAI Director of Regulatory Affairs Amber Harrison will moderate a panel of experts on the new US Department of Transportation program, including representatives from the FAA, the Florida Department of Transportation, and BETA Technologies.

VAI President and CEO François Lassale spoke to the group about the importance of working together across the aviation community to address safety challenges and emerging risks. The US Aviation Safety Team uses safety management system techniques to address potential systemic safety issues identified through ASIAS (Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing), industry forums, or FAA data. 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) determined that the collisions with terrain the two aircraft suffered were likely due to rotor drive-belt failure.

The FAA proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2022-27-08, which applies to certain Bell Textron Canada Model 407 helicopters. AD 2022-27-08 requires inspecting the tail-boom attachment structure and reporting the inspection results. Since the FAA issued the AD, two additional broken upper-left tail-boom attachment bolts have been reported. The proposed AD would require repetitively inspecting the tail-boom attachment structure, performing a torque inspection, and replacing attachment hardware, among other tasks. Comments are due on this notice of proposed rulemaking by Aug. 31.

PZL Mielec, a Lockheed Martin company, has commenced production of Europe’s first Sikorsky S-70 Firehawk helicopters. The aircraft are being manufactured for the Czech Republic Ministry of the Interior through a partnership with Česká letecká servisní, a Helicopter Alliance company, and United Rotorcraft.

(Vertical Plus) – Agencies around the world are building layered aerial fleets to combat increasingly intense wildfires.

(Aerospace America) – Vermont-based BETA Technologies announced Jul. 10 it has conducted what it called the first operational flight under the US Department of Transportation’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), transporting a genetically modified pig heart. BETA’s flights in Virginia are part of a multistate collaborative in the eIPP that includes Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 15 other states.