Where Should Air Taxis Land?
This 12 months air taxis made a little bit of a splash at CES® with the presence of Supernal’s latest SA-2 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft sitting within the Diamond Parking Lot of the West Convention Center in a mock vertiport. Add to that a stellar panel focused on three ground-breaking firms (pun intended) – Joby Aviation, Overair and Supernal – discussing the connection between air taxis and communities.
Led by Doug Johnson, Vice President of Emerging Technology Policy for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) who puts on the CES event, the panel consisted of: George Kivork, Joby (Head of US Policy State and Local), Melissa McCaffery, Overair (Director of Policy and Government Affairs) and Diana Cooper, Supernal (Chief Policy Officer). This text highlights key takeaways from their conversation.
All panelists agreed that, in certain respects, shared or plug-and-play charging infrastructure will likely be key to creating the air taxi market soar.
The group plans to take lessons learned from each the electrical vehicle (EV) market and apply those to their approaches. For instance, several U.S. electric automobile manufacturers use a combined charging system (CCS) standard (except Tesla, which developed its own standard). The General Aviation Manufacturers Association endorsed the CCS standard in its 2023 Interoperability of Electric Charging Infrastructure report.
Cooper agreed that charging infrastructure stays crucial. Supernal continues working towards an open access and shared infrastructure. She said, “due to airspace integration and noise, we hope that many OEMs can share one space including electric chargers.” Supernal wants the industry to coalesce around one standard so all OEMs can have as much charging infrastructure available to them as possible.
Unlike the opposite two OEMs, Overair plans to initially operate out of general aviation (GA) airports after which eventually work towards flying out and in of vertiports in local communities. Adding interoperable electric charging stations to existing facilities is consistent with current GA operations, where airlines already share common infrastructure.
One other commonality amongst these three very different firms is their joint desire for the laws and regulations that may enable them to launch their business models.
From certification pathways and airspace management on the FAA-level to a uniform state and native zoning ordinances, the air taxi sector requires, in McCarthy’s words, an “all-of-government” approach. She also highlighted three encouraging developments on the regulatory front on the federal level which occurred previously 12 months: (1) Congress approved a everlasting FAA administrator (2) the FAA Reauthorization currently on the table has an AAM section ands (3) an AAM Caucus formed within the House, led by 2 California-based Congressmen (not coincidentally, the state that each one 3 of those OEMs call home).
While some progress has been made, Kivork noted 4 areas that he believes still must be cultivated further: (1) the aircraft certification process (2) government incentivization for aircraft batteries (3) revitalization of the present and underutilized GA airports within the country and (4) additional collaboration across the board.
Cooper added that a uniform local zoning ordinance for the sector, which is currently lacking, stays at the highest of Supernal’s list. Local governments control the zoning processes critical to industry success.
Early & Often
Having the tech and the regulations in place is barely the start of the work that should be done to realize sector success. Community buy-in is the third leg of the stool, without which, the industry will collapse upon itself.
McCarthy, who has extensive experience within the GA world, said “If we don’t have public buy-in, we all know historically that things can go very mistaken for the industry and for the community.” Early education, not only for the community, but additionally for elective officials who can act as spokespersons and catalysts for the industry, stays one of the best approach, in her estimation.
Speaking from the identical playbook, McCarthy said, also must occur. That requires a framework with the same message to be consistent. This past 12 months, NASA produced an AAM community playbook.
And timing is all the things. In keeping with Cooper, who got here from the drone space, “you may never engage too early with the area people especially if it’s latest and a few level of automation.”
Supernal just celebrated its 4-year anniversary and has been engaging the general public for several years already. They planned this because they will likely be “going live” in one other 4 years, with a 2028 final operating capability.
Supernal has been doing a wide range of things in furtherance of its goals, including working with local governments in cities of interest to partner together to find out local needs, gaps in connectivity and to flesh out potential use cases. Cooper highlighted the corporate’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Mayor of Miami.
“We’ve been working with Miami for one and a half years, including on STEM and workforce opportunities” to spotlight “numerous latest jobs in aviation that folks haven’t had access to before,” Cooper explained. That Miami MOU has since spurred the kick-off of a neighborhood working group involving university and community stakeholders in addition to other OEMs.
Cooper also pointed to Supernal’s vertiport at CES, and an earlier similar demonstration project at Coventry within the U.K., as other great examples of public engagement.
Joby’s rep lauded Supernal’s efforts at CES and agreed that “seeing is believing.” He highlighted Joby’s flight demo from the Wall Street heliport in Recent York City as a game-changer.
“It’s an incredibly quiet aircraft. To see it come to life is vital. What that does is changes the dynamic,” Kivork said. Joby eliminated the primary 8-10 minutes of helicopter noise on the back and front end of the flight. “We took out 20 mins of noise.” People care about that.
Joby also has an ongoing open house at their flight testing facility out of the San Jose airport, where the general public can watch these flights.
Kivork, like Cooper, also emphasized that his company is bringing jobs to the area people. Joby is within the strategy of hiring as much as 100 positions. A few of these positions are “outside the box” by way of traditional workforce opportunities. For instance, Kivork explained, “one in all the touchiest things is electrical weaving.” Joby hired 40 local seamstresses, whose primary business is designing dresses for quinceaneras, for carbon fiber weaving on the aircraft. The corporate has also began pilot training by launching a 12-week pilot class. They aim to push 600 pilots through it annually.
The Future is Almost Here
Timelines vary for these firms in some respects, but all appear to be targeting the 2028 timeframe for business launch. This syncs with the FAA’s Innovate-28 plan and the Los Angeles Olympics.
Overair is worked up concerning the LA ‘28 Olympics initiative, based on McCarthy. The corporate is taking steps to align with that event on the certification front. The corporate’s eVTOL called “Butterfly,” she said, “will likely be flying this 12 months.” The team just finished the complete prototype of this 5 passenger-plus-pilot super quiet aircraft.
Kivork said that full scale operations for Joby in 2028 can be exciting. He emphasized, nevertheless, that the corporate is already flying today, although not at the size and volume they intend to do in a number of years. Joby conducts every day testing in furtherance of type certification. The corporate delivered its first aircraft to the Air Force at Edwards AFBthis 12 months.
Supernal announced at its CES launch of the SA-2 that 2028 will likely be their big 12 months. Yet “there’s still quite a bit that should be developed in any respect levels of governments,” Cooper said. For instance, the FAA’s rule on eVTOL pilot training remains to be under review. OEMs are still also waiting on the FAA to release an advisory circular (AC) for vertiports. And, in fact, local governments might have to revisit their local zoning ordinances.
Cooper elaborated that the corporate plans to launch first within the U.S. after which after that, into international markets. She explained that globally, opportunities abound. Europe has created AAM operational rules and a vertiport framework. The U.K. civil aviation authority has a collaborative agreement with the FAA which is able to allow U.S. OEMs to enter the British market. Her team stays busy encouraging additional collaboration agreements in order that it might probably enter foreign markets in Asia, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and more.
“There’s lots of discussion about harmonization globally,” McCarthy agreed. All firms plan to observe the Paris Olympics and draw lessons from that to assist forge their future plans.
Overair has been busy doing, not only watching. McCarthy added that Overair had an ideal 12 months collaborating in Jeju, South Korea. At the tip of last 12 months the corporate entered right into a trilateral MOU with the province and Hanwha Systems to initiate the strategic development of public and medical AAM operations on the resort island.
For its part, Joby has partnerships in Korea and Japan. Toyota is its biggest investors and will likely be helping the corporate to scale up in the approaching years.
Within the meantime, stay tuned for more from the air taxi world as to where, in point of fact, these air taxis will land…and fly. Hopefully it can be in places near all of us!
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