The Federal Aviation Administration will authorize test sites for drone aircraft in upstate New York, New Jersey and seven other states, the agency said on Monday, but integrating the aircraft into the nation's airspace, set by Congress for 2015, will be phased in gradually.

The agency picked six institutions to operate test locations, which will explore how to set safety standards, how to train and certify their ground-based pilots, how to ensure that the aircraft will operate safely even if they lose their radio links with the ground and, most of all, how to replace the traditional method for avoiding collisions.

Already, federal investigators have linked one drone craft to a problem that would have been almost inconceivable if a pilot had been on board: The engine failed, and no one noticed.

Read more on The New York Times