There’s been a lot of talk about BVLOS lately. Some of it makes it sound like the FAA is about to throw the doors open for drones to fly wherever they want, whenever they want. That’s not what this proposal does.
Part 108 is a proposed FAA rule for normalizing Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operations. The FAA says the goal is to create a more predictable pathway for safe, routine, and scalable BVLOS operations in U.S. airspace. In plain terms, it is meant to move the industry away from one-off waivers and toward a defined operating framework.
The Constraint Everyone Is Working Around Today
Under Part 107, the pilot generally has to keep the drone within visual line of sight. If an operator wants to go beyond that today, they usually need a waiver or another approval path. That is one of the biggest reasons drone programs can feel harder to scale than the underlying technology suggests. The aircraft may be capable of doing more, but the regulatory framework still limits how far and how routinely those operations can go.
What the FAA Is Proposing
The FAA is not proposing open-ended BVLOS access. It is proposing a structured rule with operating requirements, aircraft requirements, authorization pathways, and supporting service requirements. The agency says Part 108 would normalize certain low-altitude UAS operations, and the FAA’s materials indicate those operations would generally occur at or below 400 feet AGL, with some narrow exceptions.
One of the biggest practical changes is how operators would be authorized. The FAA fact sheet says the proposal creates two types of authorizations for BVLOS operations: permits for lower-risk operations with limited fleet size, weight, and operational scope, and operating certificates for higher-risk operations tied to factors like aircraft size, weight, speed, or fleet size. The certificate path would come with more FAA oversight and would require a safety management system and training program.
The proposal also adds requirements that are easy to miss if you only read summaries. According to the FAA fact sheet, drones operated under Part 108 would be required to have lighting and to broadcast Remote ID. The FAA also says operators would need to be familiar with airspace and flight restrictions along their intended route and would need FAA approval for the areas where they intend to fly.
Part 107 vs. Part 108
The easiest way to understand Part 108 is this: under Part 107, BVLOS is mostly handled as an exception through waivers or other approvals. Under proposed Part 108, BVLOS would move into a dedicated operating framework with defined requirements for authorizations, personnel, aircraft, and supporting services. In other words, the proposal does not remove regulation. It replaces ad hoc approvals with a more formal structure.
What Has to Happen Before This Scales
The FAA’s NPRM does not treat BVLOS as just “fly farther.” It lays out requirements for airspace management, including strategic deconfliction, detect-and-avoid, operations in controlled and uncontrolled airspace, operations over people, and even some multiple-aircraft operations. That tells you the real challenge is not just getting permission to go beyond line of sight. It is building an operating system that can do that safely and consistently.
The FAA’s structure for operators reinforces that point. The NPRM proposes an operations supervisor responsible for overall safety and an authorized flight coordinator role for direct oversight of flights. The FAA also notes that highly automated aircraftmay reduce how much active control a flight coordinator needs to exercise, but the operator still has to assign qualified personnel and maintain procedures, including handoff procedures when needed. That is a strong sign the agency is thinking about repeatable organizational control, not just pilot stick skills.
Where This Starts to Matter for IMGING Users
For most IMGING users, this is not an overnight workflow change. Property inspections are still largely going to happen under today’s operating rules until and unless Part 108 is finalized and operators move into that framework. But the proposal matters because the FAA is clearly building toward more routine BVLOS operations for use cases that include aerial surveying, which is directly relevant to inspection-heavy industries. The fact sheet specifically lists aerial surveying among the kinds of operations that could be enabled under the proposal’s permit pathway.
That matters most anywhere scale becomes operationally important: large inspection programs, geographically distributed work, or situations where repositioning crews and aircraft adds friction. The FAA’s proposal will not erase airspace, safety, or operational constraints, but it is designed to make BVLOS less dependent on one-off waiver logic and more dependent on whether the operator can meet the standing requirements of the rule.
Key Takeaways
The accurate takeaway is not “Part 108 is going to change everything tomorrow.” It is that the FAA has now proposed a much more detailed framework for routine BVLOS operations than many summaries suggest. That framework includes low-altitude operating limits, authorization tiers, new operator roles, Remote ID and lighting requirements, security and recordkeeping obligations, and airspace-management requirements that go well beyond a simple waiver replacement.
For IMGING users, that makes Part 108 worth watching closely. Not because it instantly changes how inspections are done today, but because it shows where the FAA is trying to take commercial drone operations next: away from isolated approvals and toward routine BVLOS under a defined set of operating rules.
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