The Waiting Room: Part 108 Pending at OIRA While Operators Set Dates

Jones framed Part 108 as an escape from case-by-case approvals into a predictable airspace system that companies can invest against, per DroneLife. She placed the rule inside a wider programme: "We need to focus on airspace modernization. This is about modernizing the NAS", and that "the sharing of information is necessary" and part of the plan, per DroneLife.

Jones also said: "UTM systems have already deconflicted 1.5 million BVLOS operations, with that number expected to grow", per DroneLife. FAA Associate Administrator Ben Supko, on the same stage, said: "When we have more data, we are able to determine when a drone is behaving outside of normal parameters", and "We want as much as possible to mitigate with ground resources", per DroneLife.

The rule reached OIRA on July 10, 2026, per Commercial UAV News and the reginfo.gov listing, which on September 8 still shows it as a final rule, pending review, agency DOT-FAA. Commercial UAV News notes the caveat that "the OIRA has a 90-day review process for significant draft regulations before federal agencies can publish them". Ninety days from July 10 is October 8.

The proposed rule drew roughly 3,100 responses in its initial comment period, per Commercial UAV News. The Department of Transportation's position, as reported by DroneXL, is that the delay since the February 1 due date is deliberate rather than backlog.

DoorDash's certificate makes it the eighth US drone operator under Part 135, per TechRepublic citing Business Insider; the company plans to "develop a custom aircraft and the supporting systems required to manage deliveries from merchant handoff to customer drop-off", and will "continue working with existing partners such as Wing and Flytrex", per TechRepublic. DroneXL's framing of the US position: "the UK's sandbox alone logged 1,672 BVLOS flights while American operators kept filing one waiver at a time".

The scale claims are large and dated. Zipline, per Uber's release, "makes a delivery every 20 seconds", has completed "more than 2.7 million deliveries of more than 20 million items" and flown "more than 135 million autonomous miles"; the joint target is "one million drone deliveries per day by the end of 2029". Amazon's 11 locations across 10 metropolitan areas in seven states are the base for the nearly 500 cities and towns it plans to serve by the end of 2026, per Amazon.

Joby's second-quarter letter states: "First eIPP flights expected in September, targeting first passengers in 2026", and "Over the course of a week, our electric air taxi will fly routes across the Dallas-Fort Worth area". The company reports five electric air taxis flying, including its first FAA-conforming aircraft, with 12 more in various stages of production, and "strongest progress yet in the fifth and final stage of type certification", with the stage shown as 20 per cent complete on Joby's side and 10 per cent on the FAA's, per the letter.

Joby has leased 45,000 square feet at Alliance Air Trade Center in Haslet, part of Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, per AVweb, and ended the quarter with $2.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, per the letter.

Section 232 tariffs on imported drones and components were scheduled to take effect September 3: 100 per cent on drones above 25 kilograms maximum takeoff weight, on any drone carrying a thermal imager and on docking stations, with nearly everything else at 25 per cent, per DroneXL; the structure is set out in our briefing The Tariff Wall. Comments were scheduled to close September 2 in the FCC proceeding, Public Notice DA 26-758 under PS Docket 26-189, that proposes stripping import and marketing clearance from foreign drones already approved, per DroneXL.