FAA's Part 108 BVLOS rule reaches final OIRA review, publication expected late 2026 or early 2027

TLDR

• A 3 November Federal Register notice creates DOT/FAA 860, a records system for Part 108 and Part 146 applicants.⁶
• A small subset of package-delivery operators will have citizenship information collected; comments are due 3 December.⁶
• Part 108 has sat at OIRA since 10 July; Drone Authority says it was still pending on 3 November.⁴⁷

Update, 5 October, what changed: the FAA announced it awarded $12 million to 19 drone research and testing projects, each paired with one of the agency's nine designated UAS test sites, through its UAS Broad Agency Announcement programme.⁴⁵ The programme pays companies to demonstrate detect-and-avoid, command-and-control, traffic management and identification technology under real-world conditions so the FAA can use the data in rulemaking.⁴ Fourteen organisations share the 19 awards; ANRA Technologies won four, the most of any recipient, covering air-taxi and vertiport connections, a common altitude reference, a link between drone traffic systems and airport air traffic control, and AI tools to identify drone types.⁴ SPS Aerial Remote Sensing won three awards; General Atomics, Skydweller and DroneUp each won one.⁴

The $12 million is not new spending: Section 925 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 set aside $6 million a year for matching funds at UAS test ranges from fiscal 2025 through 2028, and the figure announced Monday represents two years of that appropriation landing together.⁴ FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford framed the awards as advancing the "Unleashing American Drone Dominance" executive order of June 2025, though the appropriation itself predates that order by more than a year.⁴⁵

Part 108 has made no forward progress in the meantime. The rule has remained at OIRA since 10 July, now well past the 240-day deadline the 2025 executive order set for publication, a deadline that itself lapsed in February.⁴ FAA's Robert Reckert told Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas last month that the rule is at the "10-yard line" and that he hopes it publishes before year's end.⁴

The FAA's Part 108 rule would replace case-by-case waivers with a standing, performance-based framework for beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone flight. It reached the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for final review on 10 July 2026, and was still pending there as of September 2026. The rulemaking followed President Trump's June 2025 executive order directing routine BVLOS operations, with an NPRM published in August 2025 that drew roughly 4,000 public comments. FAA officials say they hope to publish the final rule by the end of 2026. A transition period of 6 to 12 months would likely follow.

Why it matters: Part 108 is the regulatory switch that turns long-range drone delivery and inspection from a waiver exercise into a scalable business. The FAA is now funding the research meant to inform that rule's future amendments before the rule itself has even been signed, underscoring how far the actual signature has slipped behind the administration's public drone-dominance messaging.

Update, 4 November 2026: The Department of Transportation on 3 November published a Privacy Act notice in the Federal Register (91 FR 69305, docket DOT-OST-2026-3862) proposing a new FAA system of records, numbered DOT/FAA 860, for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations under Parts 108 and 146.⁶ The notice says the system lets the FAA collect, use and maintain information from operators, manufacturers and Automated Data Service Providers (ADSPs), to the extent they are individuals, when they request authorisation for BVLOS operations. The system takes effect immediately, its routine uses take effect on 3 December, and comments are due by that date.⁶

The notice says operators give names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers and UAS serial and registration numbers, and that for "a small subset of operators", those performing package delivery, the FAA collects citizenship information that could include a birth certificate, passport or naturalisation document, with parents' names, place and date of birth, marital status and a photograph.⁶ Manufacturers may be required to submit compliance data, including noise and cybersecurity information, and ADSPs need an organisational certificate plus authorisations for individual services; Part 146 records also cover stockholders holding 5 per cent or more of voting stock, non-corporate persons with a financial interest, and accountable executives.⁶ The notice describes Part 108 as having two tiers, permits for lower-risk, smaller-scale operations and certificates for higher-risk or enterprise operations.⁶

Drone Authority notes that the notice describes the BVLOS final rule in the past tense, saying it "was issued", and reports that on the morning of 3 November the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) register still listed the final rule, RIN 2120-AL82, as received on 10 July 2026 and pending review, with no final rule published in the Federal Register.⁷ The Federal Register notice is the primary source for the system's contents; the OIRA status and the absence of a published rule rest on Drone Authority's account.⁶⁷