Advanced Air Mobility | Air Taxis
A new era of aviation is here. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is ready for powered-lift, which will be the first brand new type of civil aircraft in almost a century. We are ensuring this new generation of aircraft maintains the high level of safety that defines commercial aviation today.
What is this new aviation era?
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft is an umbrella term for aircraft that are typically highly automated, electrically powered, and have vertical take-off and landing capability. Many of these aircraft fall into the powered-lift category are often referred to as air taxis.
AAM has the potential to achieve the Biden-Harris Administration's vision of transportation that is more efficient, more sustainable, and more equitable, while creating thousands of great jobs.
AAM aircraft could also be used to transport cargo and passengers, help with firefighting, and provide search and rescue operations.
What are aircraft in the powered-lift category?
They have characteristics of both airplanes and helicopters. They’re capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and low speed flight, similar to a helicopter, and fly using a wing during cruise flight, similar to an airplane.
What is the FAA’s role?
This new era of aviation will succeed only if it is safely integrated into our National Airspace System, just like aircraft currently flying in the United States are today. That's the FAA's job: Making sure this new generation of aircraft maintain the high level of safety that defines modern aviation. The FAA has completed updating its regulations to allow for aircraft in the powered-lift category to operate safely in the National Airspace System (NAS).
How did we get here?
Aviation has always been forward-looking, and the FAA’s job is to safely enable the exciting innovations that change the way we travel. AAM is the latest development in a long history of aviation firsts.
Advanced Air Mobility Milestones
We have regulations in place to ensure that aircraft in the powered-lift category are properly certificated, are able to safely operate in our National Airspace System alongside existing aircraft, and we have determined what pilot qualifications are necessary to fly them. Here are the key milestones in that effort.
Hover over each icon to read more.
Making it Safe
Pilot and Instructor Certification
The FAA issued its final rule for powered-lift operations in October 2024. This rule outlined pilot and instructor certification requirements as well as operational rules. The operational rules are performance-based so that the appropriate regulation applies to the aircraft in the powered-lift category depending on its flight characteristics. See also the FAQs page for this final rule.
Aircraft Certification
The FAA has the an existing regulatory framework that allows manufacturers to achieve the appropriate safety standards in innovative ways. When tailoring existing rules to a new concept, the FAA determines the certification requirements for powered-lift by evaluating its design, production, airworthiness, and operation. Some certifications could require the FAA to establish additional airworthiness criteria, depending on the type of project. We use the same data-driven approach that has created the safest aviation system in the world when evaluating these complex systems.
Operator Certification & Framework
Many of these new aircraft take off in helicopter mode, transition into airplane mode for flying, and then transition back to helicopter mode for landing.
We're able to certificate operators who want to use powered-lift for commercial flights. In July 2023, the FAA issued a final rule that updates the air carrier definition to add “powered-lift” operations to the regulations covering other commercial operations, such as airlines, charters and air tours.
Integrating AAM into the Airspace
Implementation Plan
The FAA released an implementation plan providing the steps it and others will need to take to safely enable advanced air mobility operations in the near term. The “Innovate28” plan includes various components and the sequence they will occur in for operations to be at scale at one or more sites by 2028.
Infrastructure Development
We expect that initial AAM vehicles will use existing infrastructure such as helipads, routes and air traffic control services where possible. In September 2022, the FAA issued vertiport design standards to serve as the foundation to begin safely building infrastructure in this new era.
Operations
Initial operations will be much like helicopter service today. As operations increase, we could have corridors for these vehicles as well as rules for communicating with air traffic control when necessary. The FAA issued an updated blueprint for AAM operations in and around urban areas in May 2023.
Review the full Concept of Operations document here.
Community Engagement
Just like with drones, we are learning about and addressing local community concerns about AAM operations in and around metropolitan areas. For this effort, we’re engaging with state, local, and tribal governments and communities. One of our initiatives is working with NASA on a national campaign to help communities learn about AAM.
Existing noise regulations will apply to aircraft in the powered-lift category. The FAA will examine each aircraft and determine whether existing requirements are appropriate or if it needs to create rules for that particular aircraft.
Global Partners
The FAA is working with other civil aviation authorities of other countries to harmonize our AAM integration strategies. The FAA has joined the National Aviation Authorities Network, which consists of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and signed declarations of cooperation with Japan and South Korea on integrating and certifying AAM aircraft.
Through these partnerships, as well as our work with European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), we’re looking to align our certification processes and standards for AAM aircraft. And we’re eager to work with other nations so we can exchange expertise and share progress with each other.
Resources
- FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker’s Blog on Aircraft in the Powered-Lift Category
- SFAR No. 120 for Powered-Lift
- FAA Statement on Certification of Aircraft in the Powered-Lift Category
- Deputy Administrator Katie Thomson’s Remarks at the 2024 FAA Drone and AAM Symposium
- A New Era of Aviation: An AAM Webinar Series