Google’s Project Wing drone delivery services will be tested at a U.S. site, the White House announced as part of an initiative to push research and safety measures for unmanned flight.
The National Science Foundation will spend $35 million over the next five years on unmanned flight research and the Department of Interior plans to expand its use of drone flights, according to an e-mailed release Tuesday from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The White House push comes after the Federal Aviation Administration in June finalized its first set of drone regulations allowing broad commercial flights and establishing requirements for unmanned licenses.
The current regulations won’t allow the type of automated, long-distance flying that Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. have proposed for their package delivery systems. Google Project Wing will conduct experiments in a safe environment at one of the six FAA-sanctioned drone test sites to lay the groundwork for future approvals.
