Chapter 1 named LAANC in passing as the fast route to an airspace authorization; here is how it actually works. When § 107.41 requires prior authorization to fly in controlled airspace, the FAA offers two ways to get one: LAANC and the FAADroneZone. LAANC — the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, the FAA’s UAS Data Exchange — is the near-real-time route: it provides airspace authorizations at pre-approved altitudes published on the UAS Facility Maps. The FAADroneZone is the manual route, used for airports that are not LAANC-enabled and processed by hand at the FAA’s Air Traffic Service Centers; it is not near-real-time, and requests should be submitted at least 60 days before the operation.

You do not deal with a control tower directly. LAANC authorizations are provided to pilots through companies the FAA has approved — FAA-Approved UAS Service Suppliers, or USS — which have built the desktop and mobile apps you use to submit a request and receive safety-critical information about your flight. The near-real-time part turns on the UAS Facility Maps: the FAA’s published maps showing, for each patch of controlled airspace, the drone altitude the agency has pre-approved. When you request a flight at or below that pre-approved ceiling, approval comes back through the app in near-real time — you can apply on the very day you intend to fly, and requests may also be submitted up to 90 days in advance.

The pre-approved ceiling is what makes near-real-time approval possible, and it is also its limit. To fly above that altitude — while still under the 400-foot ceiling from Chapter 1 — the request is no longer automatic: it goes to “further coordination,” meaning an Air Traffic Manager who runs that airspace must review it, and such requests must be submitted at least 72 hours ahead. Some locations are mapped at 0 feet, meaning no altitude is pre-approved there at all, so any operation needs that further-coordination review. LAANC can carry further-coordination requests, and the FAADroneZone handles them for non-LAANC airports — either way, going above the grid trades the seconds of near-real-time approval for a human review and a longer lead time.