Dive Brief:
- The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday published a new rule establishing pilot certification and operation requirements for electric vertical takeoff and landing and other powered-lift aircraft planned for use as air taxis. These aircraft operate like both helicopters and airplanes.
- The new rule sets out requirements for training pilots and instructors in single-pilot operation, including the use of flight simulators for training, as well as minimum safe altitudes and required visibility for flight.
- Leading air taxi developers Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation applauded the FAA’s rulemaking. The regulation “will ensure the U.S. continues to play a global leadership role in the development and adoption of clean flight,” JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, said in an Oct. 22 statement.
Dive Insight:
Air taxi developers look to begin passenger-carrying flights as soon as next year. They have announced plans to serve the Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Chicago metro areas in the near future. These eVTOL aircraft will give “people ... the freedom to move about in different ways,” Archer Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer and former Federal Aviation Administrator Billy Nolen told Smart Cities Dive in a 2023 interview.
“Powered lift aircraft are the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years and this historic rule will pave the way for accommodating wide-scale Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations in the future,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in a statement. He added in a post on Medium, “We made this rule flexible and not overly prescriptive because we anticipate a lot of diversity among powered-lift designs.”
Helicopters and airplanes have different training and operation rules. This new category of aircraft can operate like helicopters for takeoff and landing and airplanes when cruising, necessitating the new rule, the FAA said in a press release.
Adam Goldstein, founder and CEO of Archer, said in a statement that the company now “has a clear roadmap to pioneer eVTOL here in the U.S.”
But cities will have to plan for the arrival of this new mode of travel, the American Planning Association said in a report earlier this year. Issues for local governments to address include the development of vertiports, building heights along flight paths and near landing and takeoff sites and potential community reaction to air taxis flying overhead.
