Rantizo Becomes First US Company Approved to Fly DJI Agras T30 Spraying Drone Swarms

Rantizo, a startup based in Iowa City, has received Part 107 and Part 137 certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including a waiver under Section 44807, allowing it to commercially operate the Agras T30 spraying drone recently launched by DJI. This marks the first time an American company has received such approval for this specific model, coming after Rantizo already became the first US company approved in 2020 to operate spraying drone swarms nationwide.

A rare approval in America's agricultural skies

The FAA doesn't hand out operating approvals for spraying drones lightly. These are machines that carry agricultural chemicals in low-altitude flight over open fields, sometimes close to roads, homes, and water sources. Every such request undergoes an individual review covering flight safety, spray drift risks, and environmental liability. Rantizo, operating out of Iowa City, managed to clear this bar twice in under a year: once for swarm operations, and again for a specific new model entering the market.

• Approving body: US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• Certification types: Part 107 and Part 137, plus a waiver under Section 44807
• Drone model: DJI Agras T30, recently launched by the Chinese manufacturer
• Approval date: May 2021
• Status: First US company authorized to commercially operate this model

A swarm of three drones instead of one crop duster

The new T30 approval builds on Rantizo's earlier 2020 breakthrough, when the company received the first approval of its kind allowing a single pilot, accompanied by one visual observer, to simultaneously operate up to three autonomous spraying drones. The approval is valid across all 48 contiguous US states with no restriction on distance from the field boundary, a relatively high bar given regulators' typical caution around multi-drone flight operations.

In terms of output, the difference between flying a single drone and a full swarm becomes clear on the ground. According to company data, a crew operating three drones simultaneously can cover close to 40 acres per hour, wrapping up a full workday with roughly 300 acres covered.

• Coverage rate with a 3-drone swarm: about 40 acres per hour
• Estimated daily coverage: about 300 acres per workday
• Crew composition: one pilot and one visual observer per swarm
• Maximum number of drones per swarm under the approval: three

A rival to classic crop dusters, not just single drones

That kind of coverage rate starts to approach what light crop-dusting aircraft achieve on farm fields, but at significantly lower operating cost and without the risks tied to low-altitude flight by a manned aircraft over open terrain. This is exactly the point from which Rantizo is building its business model: not selling drones as a product, but providing spraying services directly to farmers and agricultural distributors, positioning itself as a service provider that competes directly with ground-spraying operators and manned crop-dusting aircraft.

The open question is how quickly the agricultural spraying industry will actually shift to this model. The upfront cost of acquiring a drone swarm, the need to train certified operators, and ongoing dependence on individual FAA approvals for every equipment change all still represent a significant barrier to entry for smaller farmers and distributors. Still, Rantizo's move to secure a separate and relatively fast approval for a new model like the T30 suggests the FAA itself is growing more comfortable with the idea of distributed autonomous spraying in American farm skies.

This is very much an American regulatory story, but it's worth noting that Israeli precision-agriculture startups are watching this precedent closely, since no similar regulatory framework yet exists in Israel.