FAA loosens drones regulations based on Virginia Tech research

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved three types of drones for widespread flights.

The drones are three models in the eBee X series, lightweight foam aircraft manufactured by Kansas-based AgEagle. The approval means that anyone operating one of these drones in an applicable configuration can legally fly over people without having to seek permission for each individual operation through a complex waiver system — a radically streamlined process that will be a boon for AgEagle, according to a release from Virginia Tech.

The FAA approval process was based on test methods developed at Tech. In a release, Tech hailed the approval as “a nod to the value of Virginia Tech’s testing, the product of a collaboration between the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), an FAA-designated drone test site, and injury biomechanics experts in the university’s College of Engineering.”

The Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership was formed at Tech in 2013…