Five on Friday: FAA chief on eVTOL certification

This week FAA acting administrator Chris Rocheleau told us he is confident operations involving eVTOL aircraft will be certified in the US before the end of 2028.

He says the agency is ready to safely regulate aircraft certification, pilot operations and training and integration into the national airspace.

Rocheleau believes some “small-scale” revenue-generating eVTOL operations will be up and running in about 18 months, before a wider roll-out and full certification towards the end of the decade.

“Today, if we had a certified aircraft and certified pilots, we could be flying these, pick your city and pick your function,” he says. “Those three things, aircraft certification, pilot operations and training and then the integration in the airspace, honestly, we’re pretty much ready for that.

“It is really less about us being ready to handle it and more about the manufacturers being able to meet the standards that I think we all agree on. I don’t hesitate to say that we will see certified aircraft flying in the airspace before the end of 2028.”

According to Rocheleau, it is unlikely initial revenue-generating operations will be authorised via waiver or exemption. The FAA’s powered-lift Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) enables the administration to effectively oversee these operations, he notes.

The FAA chief was in France last month for the Paris Air Show alongside Department of Transportation secretary Sean P. Duffy to announce a five-country – US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – AAM roadmap focused on harmonising eVTOL certification and operational regulations.

The absence of some countries also working through an experimental phase, such as Brazil or the United Arab Emirates, has raised one or two eyebrows. However, Rocheleau says eVTOL operations are not unique to the five launch member states. “Using Brazil as an example, we want to make sure those other partners join us. So this public announcement has now had us talking to our other counterparts.”

FAA chief says certified eVTOLs operating in US by 2028 Rocheleau believes some “small-scale” revenue-generating eVTOL operations will be up and running in about 18 months, before a wider roll-out and full certification towards the end of the decade. Source: Revolution.Aero

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