An official trial will begin early in the new year that could be a big step towards retail order delivery by drone.

Flying of drones is to be tested beyond an operator’s line of sight, The Times reported.

At present that is not allowed under aviation rules. News of the trial came as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) published a new guide designed to make long-distance drone operations an “everyday occurrence”.

During the trial a drone operator in a control room will monitor semi-autonomous craft from a distance of more than 50 miles away. The trial will enable inspections of building sites first, but may open the door to commercial ’beyond line-of-sight’ flights by early 2021 according to the newspaper.

At the moment drone operators must fly the devices within sight, normally within a range of up to 1,600ft and at a maximum atlitude of 400ft.

However the restrictions have meant that retail pioneers of the technology, notably online Goliath Amazon, have been unable to use drones commercially.  Amazon has been working on drone delivery near Cambridge.

The CAA told The Times that allowing beyond-line-of-sight drone use ”could bring huge benefits, including drone parcel delivery”.