The Cable News Network, better known as CNN, has become the first mainstream news broadcaster in the U.S. to adopt aerial drones in order to gather news footage.

The broadcaster has a new CNN Aerial Imagery and Reporting (AIR) unit, called CNN AIR, hiring two full-time drone operators to fly its unmanned birds.

“For the first time in the company’s history, CNN will have a designated unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) unit … to fully integrate aerial imagery and reporting across all CNN networks and platforms, along with Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner entities,” the company said in a statement.

The effort is the culmination of a year-long cooperation effort with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to research the safe use of drones for news-gathering, CNN said. The broadcaster was one of three industry “pathfinders” that helped the FAA to research the commercial use of drones. The research has been used to help the FAA create legislation for commercial drone operations in the U.S.

“CNN’s cutting-edge development of technology to enhance the way we tell stories is a part of our DNA,” Terence Burke, senior vice president of national news at CNN said in a statement. “We are proud to continue the tradition with CNN AIR, and to establish a unit that will expand our technological capabilities for newsgathering.”

CNN revealed its already been using drones in some of its broadcasts, including coverage of the recent Democratic and Republican national conventions, the Louisiana floods, and the Flint, Michigan water crisis. The broadcaster says the drones help to add deeper context and enhance its storytelling capabilities.

The FAA recently published its first official guidelines governing the commercial use of drones in the U.S., which allow entities to conduct operations for aerial photography, agricultural work, construction surveys and other for-hire use cases. However the new regulations have proven to be controversial, as they prohibit potentially disruptive uses like delivering packages, something that companies including Amazon.com Inc., and Google have been pushing for.

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