‘US air taxi certification likely pushed to 2027’
The first type certification of an eVTOL aircraft in the US is unlikely to be issued before 2027.
That was the takeaway message following the FAA’s latest industry day, according to David Ison, director of research at Air Mobility Research Group and Aviation Planner, Emerging Aviation Technologies & Land Use Compatibility, Washington State Department of Transportation.
The day itself was dedicated to vertiports – its official title was EB 105A Vertiports Design Industry Day – but there were hints at the FAA’s timelines for a number of other pieces of the AAM puzzle, including aircraft certification.
“The takeaways were that one of many required testing series will not be done by the end of 2025 and will carry into 2026,” Ison told us. “The results from all of this testing, which will be critical to both aircraft and infrastructure standards, will not be made available until mid-2027.”
During the meet, a transcript of which can be found here, it was stated that the US Congress “stipulated that we [the FAA] publish a performance-based design document by the end of this calendar year so 2025”.
It was also noted that the FAA’s Office of Airports will provide the agency’s Aircraft Certification Service with the performance data from additional testing from “current and future test campaigns to be completed by end of calendar year 2025”.
“Thus, if just a piece of required testing won’t be done until the end of 2025,” said Ison. “We can be assured there won’t be a certified eVTOL until well beyond that time.”
The FAA continued their discussion about a movement towards performance-based standards, stating that the plan was to create a “comprehensive” advisory circular on VTOL aircraft.
The necessary research for this document will take some time and the FAA stated that they anticipate the advisory circular to be published in the summer of 2027.
The FAA stated: “Research done on these topics for all vertical lift aircraft [is required] by the end of this calendar year in order to be incorporated or considered for the advisory circular to be published midpoint 2027 so overall you know we are, we have and we continue to use a data driven approach because we want to ultimately ensure that […] vertical lift infrastructure standards allow for safe operations. So we remain committed to updating guidance as performance data becomes available.
“We also remain committed to doing follow on updates to the engineering brief as needed once again to support commercial operational timelines.”
When asked if he thinks even mid-to-late 2027 is an ambitious timeline for the first eVTOL type certification by the FAA, Ison said: “2027 is still a bit aspirational. I could see by the end of the decade…. 2028-2030.”
Following a request for comment the FAA told us: “The timeline for data and testing needed for the development of the proposed Unified Vertical Lift Infrastructure Advisory Circular is separate from the certification timeline that aircraft manufacturers have. We would like to remind the public that EB 105A serves as interim guidance and can be used now for those who are interested in starting vertiport planning.”