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A public draft released October 29 would open a slice of the 450 MHz band to drone command-and-control links under one nationwide license. It would also let ground radars that detect drones use the 24.45 to 24.65 GHz band without a waiver. A third change updates in-flight broadband rules at 800 MHz.
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The Colorado suburb's council approved the rules on October 26, ahead of Wing and Walmart's planned 2027 Denver launch. They cover only the ground site. The city says flight paths stay with the FAA.
A notice published in the Federal Register on October 26 confirms that a drone may qualify as an earth station in motion under the FCC's satellite rules. It asks whether drones should get their own category, and it sets a goal of access without individual licenses.
DOT, the Department of War, and DHS announced a drone flight restriction on October 16 that reaches one nautical mile north of the U.S.-Mexico border, up to 400 feet. The FAA's notice lists it from October 19, 2026, to October 19, 2027. Requests to fly go to Customs and Border Protection.
Portland's City Council voted 11-0 to notify Oregon's land-use agency that it will consider a temporary moratorium on facilities that support commercial drones. The vote does not adopt one. Amazon applied last month to build a Prime Air base at its North Portland warehouse.
An October 14 FCC notice files the Department of War's section 1709 letters to Congress in the DJI and Autel dockets: redacted cover pages in public, classified letters under seal. The FCC says it did not rely on them at the time it made any related Covered List additions.
The FAA says the Unmanned Aircraft General-Small knowledge test will begin including image-based questions drawn from current sectional charts that do not appear in the test supplement.
Zipline's first Austin-area hub sits just outside Round Rock's city limits. The city says it can control where hubs go but not where drones fly, and it is working with Zipline on a second hub behind Renaissance Square to shape future rules.
The FCC voted 3-0 to lift the airborne-use ban that kept drones off 50 megahertz of low-band cellular spectrum. At the same meeting it adopted rules that limit FCC-recognized test labs to the U.S. and countries with reciprocal deals, which reaches every new drone sold in the U.S.
Federal prosecutors say Pujan Prashantkumar Gajjar, 24, flew a drone across an active runway at Dallas Love Field late on June 26, 2025, then into the restricted airspace around DFW the next night. A grand jury indicted him on September 16. The release does not name the statutes charged.
A 2024 law lets a law enforcement agency request a drone-only flight restriction over a stadium game or an outdoor festival. The FAA's TFR list now carries the type 'UAS Public Gathering,' and ten are in force between October 2 and October 18.
The FAA's list names 19 projects from 14 organizations, from General Atomics and Skydweller to DroneUp and Oklahoma State. Most of the work is on detect and avoid, long-range links, and drone traffic management.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission added guideline 3B1.6, Use of Unmanned Aircraft. It adds 6 offense levels when the SAFER SKIES Act's drone enhancement applies to a felony and 4 levels when an offense otherwise involved using a drone. The Commission set a March 15, 2027 effective date.
In Palange v. Borough of Lodi, Judge Susan D. Wigenton denied the borough's motion to dismiss on September 24. She held that Lodi's ordinance is field preempted and conflict preempted by federal aviation law. She denied the pilot's request for a restraining order because the borough says he is not in violation.
HB 429, enacted March 31, makes it unlawful to fly within 400 feet of or above a gated, ticketed music, sports, or performing arts event. A first violation is a fine of up to $500 and a repeat is a class A misdemeanor.
Public Act 25-1 bars state agencies, municipalities, their contractors, and state or federal funds from buying small drones made by a covered foreign entity starting October 1, 2026. Since October 1, 2025, the same act has made it a class A misdemeanor for anyone to fly below 250 feet over, or within 100 feet of, a listed critical infrastructure facility without approval.
Marco Antonio Ochoa, 50, pleaded guilty on September 22 to one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft. Federal prosecutors say he launched in March from the overlook built for plane watching, inside a runway exclusion zone. The count carries up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Xiaodong He pleaded guilty on September 18 in federal court in Orlando to violating national defense airspace. He had launched on July 25 from a Canaveral National Seashore parking lot inside restricted area R-2932. The count carries up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, and a December 2025 amendment now makes a second offense a five-year felony.
H.R. 10304, the Drone Safety Statement Modernization Act, was introduced September 8 and approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as amended, by voice vote on September 15. It replaces the 2016 requirement for a safety statement in the box.
Governor Newsom approved AB 2113 on September 20, 2026, and it was chaptered as Chapter 383, Statutes of 2026. It adds Public Utilities Code sections 21750 and 21752: no drone flight within 400 feet of an outdoor ticketed entertainment event or an amusement park, with a $500 fine per violation.
Two amendments to A.R.S. 13-3729 approved June 22 took effect with Arizona's general effective date on September 12: a class 1 misdemeanor for operating a civil drone within 5,280 feet of or above a gated, ticketed music, sporting, or performing-arts event, and a class 3 misdemeanor for recreational flights that photograph or loiter within 200 feet above a posted K-12 campus.
Robert Reckert, acting manager of the FAA's Emerging Technologies Division, told the closing keynote at Commercial UAV Expo that the agency is very confident in the rule and hoping to see it published by the end of the calendar year, Commercial UAV News reported September 11.
A September 4 Federal Register notice asks BVLOS operators and their associations to apply for technical roundtables on TSA-approved security programs, to be held once the FAA and TSA final rules are published.
Permit Sonoma agreed on September 2 to stop warrantless drone surveillance of homes and their surroundings, notify residents who were surveilled, delete footage after 30 days, and put a revised policy through public comment, ending a lawsuit over a program that began as cannabis enforcement in 2019.
The final count in PS Docket 26-189 is 3,847. Pilot Institute's review of the readable filings puts opposition at 98.6 percent, and DJI's comment is signed by the 48th Solicitor General of the United States.
OIRA's register lists the final BVLOS rule as received July 10, 2026, Pending Review, and already past a statutory deadline of January 16, 2026. The FAA's Fall 2025 agenda had promised a final rule in July.
ESHB 2711 doubles the state registration fee to $30 and puts commercial drones on the aircraft excise schedule, and the increase is routed to a sustainable aviation fuel account.
State, local, tribal, and territorial governments have until September 10 to apply. The agreements support advanced testing but do not make Part 108 final or grant automatic BVLOS authority.
The five-year zone can support wireless research on farms, including work with robots and drones. It does not replace an FCC program license, spectrum coordination, or FAA flight approval.
The agency says Gorge Drones dispensed fertilizer without an agricultural aircraft operator certificate and used an unregistered aircraft without an airworthiness certificate.
Castle Rock and Parker are using local land-use authority to stop new hub approvals temporarily while they write rules for noise, privacy, siting, and neighborhood compatibility.
A joint DHS-DOJ rule creates separate detection and mitigation certifications for qualified agencies. The published September 4 comment deadline has passed.
DETER can offer eligible first-time operators a reduced penalty or suspension, but only after they admit liability and waive an appeal.
The FAA's UAFR proposal would create Standard and Special drone flight restrictions around eligible fixed-site facilities. Comments are now due August 5, 2026.
The FAA's BVLOS framework remains at the NPRM stage as of July 2026, while delivery networks and utility programs scale as if it is coming.