Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) specialists Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has announced that it is to expand its commercial UAV testing programme into the US.

The UAV tests are to start in the first quarter of this year at the New York Griffiss International Airport UAS Test Site, which is located in Rome, New York.

The company has announced that it will use the Sparrow X1000 UAV that had Compliant UAV Status approved by Transport Canada last month. According to DDC it will use its proprietary FLYTE management software, designed to support semi-autonomous flight as well as what is referred to as BVLOS (beyond visual line of site) flights designed for commercial drone deliveries.

In a statement issued on Monday Tony Di Benedetto, CEO of DDC, commented: “We have very strong interest from multiple commercial customers in the USA that not only want to test our drone delivery platform in Canada , but also in their own Country as well.

“This pilot program will act as an extension of our primary Canadian initiatives and will expand our data collection ability.

“The FAA approved Rome, N.Y. site was made available to us by the progressive initiatives of the FAA and provides an ideal testing environment to achieve our customers’ requests.”