"It allows drones to be operated beyond the pilot's visual line of sight, and it allows multiple drones to operate by one operator or pilot," McDanolds said.

Policy changes, global conflicts, and new funding are reshaping the drone industry from hype to industrial-scale commercial and defense ops.

By freezing out new foreign drones, the FCC has set off a race to localize production in a market long dominated by China.

In the case of one hot start-up drone company, the San Francisco Bay area's loss has been Detroit's gain. The company, known as Birdstop, relocated its headquarters late last year out of the Bay Area ...