The FAA announced on 9 November 2026 that it has authorized Skyways, an Austin, Texas drone developer, to fly its V2 uncrewed vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft beyond visual line of sight from the US coast to an offshore Shell platform in the Gulf, AvWeb (Matt Ryan) reports. AvWeb says the FAA described the approval as its first authorization for a beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operation originating from the US coastline and extending over the Gulf. Lens could not open the FAA’s release, which returned HTTP 403, so the FAA’s wording comes through AvWeb, DroneLife, Commercial UAV News and a release from Skyways and Shell on PR Newswire. The FAA-derived texts call the water the Gulf of America; AvWeb writes Gulf of Mexico.

What was authorized

The flight would leave a Shell Pipeline Company facility in Gibson, Louisiana, and fly to an offshore Shell platform, which no source names. AvWeb writes the entity as Shell Pipeline Company LC and the Skyways–Shell release as Shell Pipeline Company LP. The mission combines inspecting a pipeline right-of-way with a simulated delivery of equipment to the platform. The FAA issued it under Section 927 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024; Skyways and Shell call it a waiver. No source gives a flight date, distance, altitude, speed or payload limit, the Skyways–Shell release calls the mission planned, and Unite.AI, an AI-written outlet Lens treats as low reliability, says the demonstration has not yet been flown.

Section 927

An FAA notice in the Federal Register on 1 April 2026 sets out a waiver process under Section 927 as an additional tool alongside the exemption process. An applicant must show that the operation would not adversely affect safety or would provide an equivalent level of safety, the same standard as an exemption, without a separate showing that the relief is in the public interest. What Skyways had to show has not been published; AvWeb gives only the generic requirement.

What was said

Liam McKenna, the FAA’s acting deputy administrator, said, according to AvWeb: “This first-of-its-kind authorization demonstrates how we are working with industry to move beyond traditional operating limitations and enable the next generation of commercial drone operations.” Autonomy Global (Dawn Zoldi) reported McKenna telling an AUVSI symposium: “This is a really big deal because these customarily have been manned aircraft operations.” Skyways co-founder and chief executive Charles Acknin said in the Skyways–Shell release: “This authorization opens up a much larger operating envelope for us in the US.”

About Skyways and the V2

The following are Skyways’ claims. The V2 is a hybrid-powered VTOL with electric vertical lift, a heavy-fuel cruise engine and satellite-based command and control. The company says it has flown about 3,500 autonomous flights and about 90,000 km worldwide, including cargo missions for the US Navy, Japan’s Ministry of Defense, DSV, Skyports Drone Services and All Nippon Airways. AvWeb says Skyways previously used the V2 for offshore deliveries to a Baltic Sea wind farm in Germany, completing round trips of about 50 miles in a 2025 demonstration. Tectonic Defense reports that Skyways was founded in 2017 and was in Y Combinator’s summer 2017 cohort.

Context

Shell has a separate FAA waiver. The Journal of Petroleum Technology (Jennifer Pallanich, 11 September 2026) reports that, about two months earlier, the FAA gave Shell a waiver to approve its own operators’ BVLOS drone flights at its US Gulf facilities, and that Shell flew 44 flights from the Mars platform in April, all landing successfully, including one at night. AvWeb notes that Shell’s flights launched from offshore facilities, while this authorization originates onshore. In December 2024 Unmanned Airspace reported that Phoenix Air Unmanned and Shell flew a BVLOS research flight from the same Gibson terminal to a platform at Ship Shoal 28. AvWeb says the FAA continues to develop its proposed Part 108 framework for routine BVLOS operations.

Not to be confused with

Skyways announced a separate aircraft the same day, Skyreach, the production version of its next-generation design. The Next Web, Unmanned Airspace and Tectonic Defense report that Skyreach customer flights for defense and commercial customers begin in December 2026. That date does not apply to the Gulf mission, for which no start date has been published.

Where accounts differ

Nearly every source calls the aircraft the V2; Autonomy Global, which reports McKenna’s remarks, writes E2. Autonomy Global alone says the approval is the first beyond US waters, including beyond the 12-mile territorial boundary. The Skyways–Shell release is headlined “Over the High Seas” without defining it. None of the sources Lens read says how far offshore the platform is or whether it lies beyond 12 nautical miles.

Sources and notes

Sources, read through summaries: AvWeb (Matt Ryan, 9 November 2026, read twice); the Skyways–Shell release (PR Newswire, 9 November); DroneLife (9 November); Commercial UAV News (9 November); Unmanned Airspace (Kylie Bielby, 9 November); Autonomy Global (Dawn Zoldi, 9 November); Unite.AI; The Next Web and Tectonic Defense on Skyreach; the FAA’s Federal Register notice of 1 April 2026; the Journal of Petroleum Technology; and Unmanned Airspace’s December 2024 report. The FAA’s release and Section 927 page returned HTTP 403, RuntimeWire is paywalled, and Skyways’ own news page returned 404. Lens found no Shell statement beyond the release.

Image: The Holstein offshore oil and gas platform at dusk, Green Canyon, Gulf of Mexico, January 2024. Photo: GuavaTrain, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. Stand-in image of a Gulf production platform; it is not the Shell platform in the authorization and shows no drone.