The FAA has put the first digital air traffic control towers in the United States into operation at Bartow Executive Airport (BOW) in Florida and Kenai Municipal Airport (ENA) in Alaska, where controllers now follow airfield traffic on cameras and digital displays instead of through tower windows. Five more non-towered airports will soon receive systems, funded by the Working Families Tax Cut Act.

The FAA announced the deployments in a press release dated November 6, 2026, and said it selected the Frequentis system. The deployments follow the agency’s first System Design Approval (SDA) for a digital tower, which an FAA program guidance letter says was granted to Frequentis USA, with conditions, on September 2, 2026. Under FAA guidance, airport sponsors can select only designs that have completed the SDA process.

How a digital tower works

According to the FAA, digital towers use advanced cameras and digital displays to give controllers a continuous 360-degree view of runways, taxiways and surrounding airspace, along with additional information that supports their work. Controllers still manage the airspace, the agency said, now with newer technology and facilities.

The FAA’s digital towers page adds that the view is shown on a video wall in a control center, that the system captures and reproduces ambient airfield audio in the control room, and that visual tools include automatic target detection, aircraft data tags, infrared cameras and enhanced low-light visibility. The agency describes digital towers as a cost-effective alternative to building traditional towers that may expand air traffic control access at rural and community airports.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said, “Our air traffic controllers continue to do the critical job of keeping aircraft safely separated,” and that the agency is giving them better technology to do it. “Digital towers provide controllers with greater visibility of airport activity,” he said, adding that the goal is to put better tools in the hands of the workforce so it can keep delivering safe, reliable air traffic services.

The next five airports and the money behind them

The FAA named the five non-towered airports that will receive systems next: Winter Haven Regional Airport and Venice Municipal Airport in Florida, Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland, Johnston Regional Airport in North Carolina and Durango-La Plata County Airport in Colorado. AirPro News has followed Johnston Regional’s bid for an FAA-approved digital tower. The release did not give installation dates.

The FAA’s digital towers page says the Working Families Tax Act allocated $50 million to advance digital towers at qualified non-towered airports under the agency’s Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) initiative. AirPro News has covered the wider modernization effort, including the FAA’s Modern Skies tracking website.

From pilot program to the first approval

A pilot program dating to 2018

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 first directed the FAA to create a pilot program testing digital towers as a lower-cost option to conventional towers, and testing on several proposed systems began in 2018, according to the FAA. In 2022, Raytheon and Frequentis installed a prototype digital tower system at Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) in New Jersey for further evaluation. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 then required the agency to set a clear framework and timeline for approving and deploying digital towers.

The FAA said it spent years testing systems at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City and other locations to develop standards and confirm the systems meet its safety, accuracy and reliability requirements. Testing covered controller visual capabilities, workstation layout, controller response to equipment failure and the suitability of training materials. Evaluators also measured the delay between an airfield event and its appearance on controller displays to confirm the imagery is timely enough for safe operations.

What the approval covers

The FAA’s digital towers page identifies the approved product as Frequentis’s smartVISION Digital Tower System, for use at sponsor-owned Federal Contract Tower (FCT) airports with a single runway and Class D airspace. The agency says the SDA safety and compliance evaluation typically takes about 24 to 36 months, depending on a product’s maturity and supporting documentation. The same page lists Bartow as the first operational Non-Federal Control Tower (NFCT) digital tower system, in September 2026.

Program Guidance Letter 26-06, dated September 28, 2026, sets out what airports must do to fund a system. Eligibility is limited to airport sponsors that take part in the FCT Program, including its cost-share program, and an existing brick-and-mortar tower is not required. Only systems that complete SDA go on the FAA’s approved list, the approval is system-specific, and the sponsor must own, operate and maintain the system and take on lifecycle maintenance and upgrades. The 2024 Act extended the digital tower pilot program through fiscal year 2028, the letter says.

Bartow and Kenai

In a press release dated March 10, 2026, Frequentis said its digital tower solution was installed in summer 2025 in Bartow’s newly renovated Digital Tower Operations Center (DTOC), and that Bartow had chosen the Frequentis X10 communications platform, which combines voice communications, recording and terminal information including weather data. Frequentis said the airport also aims to establish a Florida Center of Excellence for new aviation technologies.

In Alaska, AirPro Atlas data list Kenai’s runway 02L/20R as an asphalt runway 7,855 feet long. The FAA release gave no further detail on the Kenai installation.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has opened an audit of the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety oversight of helicopter air tour operations, citing questions about how aware the agency is of an “aerial photography” loophole and other exemptions used by sightseeing tours. The OIG announced the audit, project number 27A3002A000, on November 3, 2026, and said the work begins in November 2026.

The audit objective is to evaluate the FAA’s safety oversight of helicopter air tour operations, according to the announcement memo signed by Marshall E. Jackson, Assistant Inspector General for Aviation Audits. The memo cites longstanding concerns about the industry’s safety and about whether the regulatory framework provides adequate safeguards. It says the exemptions in question allow sightseeing tours to operate under less stringent requirements than intended.

What prompted the audit

The memo describes helicopter tourism as a multimillion-dollar U.S. industry and notes that FAA Flight Standards District Offices (FSDOs) nationwide oversee commercial helicopter air tours. It states that at least 58 crashes involving tourist helicopters have occurred since 2008, 11 of them fatal. It also cites the April 10, 2025, accident in which, according to the memo, a Bell 206 LongRanger IV on a sightseeing tour went into the Hudson River and all six people aboard were killed.

The NTSB lists its investigation of that accident, case ERA25MA171, as ongoing, and its investigation page shows no final report or probable cause.

Representatives Robert Menendez, Jerrold Nadler, Ed Case, Dan Goldman, Frank Pallone, Jr., Jill Tokuda and Nydia Velazquez requested the audit on October 16, 2025, the memo says. According to the OIG, the members asked it to assess the FAA’s oversight of helicopter air tourism and the agency’s awareness of existing operations.

A rulebook spread across several parts

The rulemaking committee’s findings

The OIG points to the Commercial Air Tour Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) final report of November 22, 2025, which concluded that operational and procedural requirements for commercial air tours are spread across multiple rules that sometimes overlap or contradict one another. The FAA chartered that committee under a charter dated January 14, 2025, as mandated by the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024. Its members included aircraft owners and operators, air tour and safety organizations and other industry experts, and the NTSB and the FAA cooperated with it.

The report says air tour rules sit across Parts 91, 119, 135, 136 and 194 of the federal aviation regulations. Its first recommendation is to overhaul Part 136 so that it includes all air tour standards. Other recommendations include an annual Air Tour Flight Review for pilots not subject to Part 135 or Part 121 checks, minimum pilot-in-command experience standards, flight data monitoring (FDM) programs, the formal identification of High Traffic Tour Areas, and ADS-B In and Out equipage in all airspace.

The committee also recommends amending section 119.1(e)(2) to reference Part 136, amending section 91.147 so that it acts as a referral clause to Part 136, and moving the Part 91 Letter of Authorization (LOA) process into Part 136.

The NTSB’s aerial photography concern

The memo attributes the aerial photography concern to the NTSB, which it says found that some operators use the loophole to follow the safety rules that apply to private recreational pilots. Among its references, the memo cites the NTSB’s accident report on a March 11, 2018, Liberty Helicopters FlyNYON doors-off flight in New York.

The NTSB also raised the issue in an April 13, 2021, letter to the FAA that transmitted its report on revenue passenger-carrying operations under Part 91. In Safety Recommendation A-21-10, the board asked the FAA to identify shortcomings in 14 CFR 119.1(e) that let operators avoid stricter regulation and oversight, citing “nonstop commercial air tour flights operating as aerial photography flights” as one example.

The same letter reiterated two earlier recommendations: A-19-28, that all commercial air tour operators, regardless of operating rule, implement a safety management system (SMS), and A-19-31, that the FAA develop Part 135 standards, or equivalent regulations, for all air tour operations with powered airplanes and rotorcraft. The NTSB classified A-19-31 at the time as open with an unacceptable response. AirPro News has separately covered the FAA’s expanded SMS mandate for operators.

How the audit will work

According to the memo, the OIG will contact the FAA audit liaison to schedule an entrance conference. The audit team will work at FAA Headquarters and at select FSDOs, chosen from a sample of helicopter tour operators. Questions about the audit go to Jackson or to Brian Frist, Program Director.

The memo does not give a date for the audit’s final report. For tour operators and the FSDOs that oversee them, the NTSB’s 2021 letter and the rulemaking committee’s report point to the same provision: both single out 14 CFR 119.1(e), which the NTSB links to air tours flown as aerial photography flights.

The FAA has ordered inspections of sealant inside the center wing fuel tank of certain Boeing 787-8, 787-9 and 787-10 airplanes, after a report that some sealant installations did not receive required visual and adhesion inspections during production. Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2026-22-05 takes effect on December 7, 2026, and the FAA estimates that it affects 60 airplanes of U.S. registry.

The final rule, published in the Federal Register on November 2, 2026, under Docket No. FAA-2026-1322 (Amendment 39-23507), requires a detailed inspection of certain sealant installations in the left, right and center wing side-of-body areas, an adhesion test of the sealant, and applicable on-condition actions. The FAA states in the AD that the unsafe condition, if not addressed, “could result in development of an ignition source within the fuel tank volume” and “a risk of a fuel tank explosion during a lightning strike event.”

What operators must do

The AD requires operators to perform the actions in the Accomplishment Instructions of Boeing Alert Requirements Bulletin B787-81205-SB570053-00 RB, Issue 001, dated November 5, 2025, at the times specified in its Compliance paragraph. The related Boeing Alert Service Bulletin B787-81205-SB570053-00, Issue 001, of the same date, is referenced as guidance. Where the bulletin counts compliance times from its Issue 001 date, operators use the AD’s effective date instead.

The AD applies only to the airplanes identified in the Boeing requirements bulletin. Where the bulletin says to contact Boeing for repair instructions, the repair must be done using a method approved by the FAA. For sealant installation repairs, the final rule adds that complying with Airworthiness Limitation (AWL) items 28-AWL-83, 28-AWL-120, 28-AWL-121, 28-AWL-123, 28-AWL-124 and 28-AWL-125, as applicable, in Section D of the Boeing 787 Special Compliance Items/Airworthiness Limitations document D011Z009-03-04, dated August 2018, is an acceptable repair.

Alternative methods of compliance (AMOCs) may be approved by the Manager of the FAA’s Continued Operational Safety Branch (AIR-520) under 14 CFR 39.19. Boeing’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) may also approve AMOCs for repairs, modifications or alterations if that manager authorizes it.

Costs and the comments behind the final rule

The FAA estimates 34 work-hours per airplane for the detailed inspection and adhesion test, at $85 per hour, for a labor cost of $2,890 per airplane and no parts cost. Across the 60 U.S.-registered airplanes, that comes to $173,400 for U.S. operators. The FAA says it has no definitive data on which to base estimates for on-condition repairs, and that the manufacturer says some or all costs may be covered under warranty.

The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), United Airlines and an individual commenter supported the proposal without change. Boeing and American Airlines both asked for an exception allowing certain repairs under other Boeing service information. The FAA agreed with Boeing’s request and revised the repair paragraph of the AD. It did not make a change for American’s request, noting that operators may use applicable Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM) procedures if each repair complies with all applicable AWL items.

American also asked whether the injection seal adhesion test applies along the dashed lines or across the whole enclosed area in Figure 1 of Appendix F. The FAA replied that the test is required along the dashed lines. The Foundation for Aviation Safety asked whether installation inspections are now required during production. The FAA said the AD’s applicability is limited to the identified airplanes because of a lack of evidence that the inspections were done on them, and confirmed that the inspections are being performed during production on airplanes outside the AD’s applicability.

From proposal to final rule

The FAA first proposed the directive in a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register on February 24, 2026 (91 FR 8791), under Project Identifier AD-2025-01665-T. The NPRM was issued on February 12, 2026, and set a comment deadline of April 10, 2026. In the proposal, the FAA said it had determined that the unsafe condition is likely to exist or develop on other products of the same type design. The Boeing requirements bulletin that both documents rely on is dated November 5, 2025.

In the final rule, the FAA says it reviewed the relevant data and the comments received and determined that air safety requires adopting the AD as proposed, with minor editorial changes and the changes it describes, none of which it says increase the economic burden on operators. The rule was issued on October 26, 2026, by Brian Knaup, Acting Deputy Director of the Integrated Certificate Management Division in the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service.

The directive is filed under ATA Code 57, Wing. AirPro News previously reported on the FAA’s 787 bulkhead inspection mandate in March 2025.

What comes next

The AD takes effect on December 7, 2026, and compliance times in the Boeing bulletin run from that date. The FAA contact named in the final rule is Tak Kobayashi, Aviation Safety Engineer, in Des Moines, Washington.