Entries Now Open for eVTOL Insights’ Global AAM Awards 2026 — with 18 New Categories in Biggest Edition Yet

eVTOL Insights is thrilled to announce entries are now offi­cial­ly open for its Glob­al AAM Awards 2026 — with next year’s edi­tion set to be the most com­pre­hen­sive it has planned.

The awards cer­e­mo­ny will take place imme­di­ate­ly after eVTOL Insights’ North Amer­i­ca Con­fer­ence on Thurs­day, April 30th, 2026. It will be held at the Nation­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Cen­ter of Excel­lence (NAAMCE) based at Spring­field-Beck­ley Munic­i­pal Air­port near Spring­field, Ohio.

With 18 brand new cat­e­gories across Team, Indi­vid­ual, and Com­pa­ny sec­tions, each one aims to high­light and recog­nise cut­ting-edge engi­neer­ing and design excel­lence to lead­er­ship, cul­ture, and inno­va­tion in auton­o­my, infra­struc­ture, and edu­ca­tion.

The Ear­ly bird dead­line is Decem­ber 31st, 2025 with entries cost­ing £249. After this date, entries will cost £299 until the final entry dead­line on Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 27th, 2026. Judg­ing will begin from Mon­day, March 2nd, 2026.

Jason Pritchard, Exec­u­tive Edi­tor at eVTOL Insights, said: “This is more than just an award show — it’s a glob­al cel­e­bra­tion of the peo­ple, tech­nolo­gies, and com­pa­nies lead­ing the charge across the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­ket.

“We’ve expand­ed our cat­e­gories to reflect the grow­ing breadth and matu­ri­ty of the indus­try, and we’re excit­ed to be able to hon­our more out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions from around the world.”

The full cat­e­gories, with new ones high­light­ed in bold, are:

TEAM

Start­up of the Year - For an ear­ly-stage com­pa­ny (<2 years) demon­strat­ing inno­va­tion and mar­ket poten­tial.

Small Mar­ket­ing Team of the Year (<50 employ­ees)

Large Mar­ket­ing Team of the Year (More than 51 employ­ees)

Small Design Team of the Year  (<50 employ­ees)

Large Design Team of the Year (More than 51 employ­ees)

Small Engi­neer­ing Team of the Year (<50 employ­ees)

Large Engi­neer­ing Team of the Year (More than 51 employ­ees)

COMPANY

Best Place to Work

Best Com­pa­ny Cul­ture Award

Bat­tery or Propul­sion Inno­va­tion of the Year - For advance­ments in pow­er­train tech that mean­ing­ful­ly boost per­for­mance, safe­ty, or range.

Infra­struc­ture Inno­va­tion of the Year — For progress in ver­ti­ports, charg­ing sys­tems, air­space inte­gra­tion, etc.

Reg­u­la­to­ry Leader of the Year — For a com­pa­ny or pub­lic body shap­ing safe, for­ward-think­ing AAM reg­u­la­tion.

Autonomous Flight Inno­va­tion Award — Recog­nis­ing lead­ing work in autonomous flight con­trol, nav­i­ga­tion, and AI inte­gra­tion

Glob­al Ecosys­tem Part­ner of the Year — For excel­lence in cross-bor­der part­ner­ships, sup­ply chain, or net­work devel­op­ment

Diver­si­ty & Inclu­sion in AAM Award — For ini­tia­tives pro­mot­ing greater rep­re­sen­ta­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ty across the indus­try.

Train­ing & Work­force Devel­op­ment Award — Recog­nis­ing efforts to build AAM-relat­ed skills pipelines, pilot train­ing, or tech­ni­cian pro­grams

AAM Soft­ware Inno­va­tor of the Year — For a devel­op­er or archi­tect of crit­i­cal soft­ware relat­ed to flight automa­tion, UTM, or sim­u­la­tion.

Best Aware­ness Rais­ers of AAM

Com­pa­ny of the Year (under 50 employ­ees)

Com­pa­ny of the Year (50 — 100 employ­ees)

Com­pa­ny of the Year (100+ employ­ees)

INDIVIDUAL

Com­mu­ni­ca­tor of the Year

Tech­nol­o­gy Leader of the Year

Engi­neer of the Year

The Under 30 ‘Ris­ing Star’ Award

Leader of the Year

Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion Award

STEM & Edu­ca­tion Impact Award — Hon­our­ing out­reach or edu­ca­tion efforts sup­port­ing AAM-relat­ed STEM fields

Test Pilot of the Year — Recog­nis­ing a pilot con­tribut­ing to safe­ty, inno­va­tion, or first-flight mile­stones in eVTOL test­ing.

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Pio­neer Award — For an indi­vid­ual instru­men­tal in achiev­ing key reg­u­la­to­ry or cer­ti­fi­ca­tion break­throughs.

OVERALL

Medaille d’Or (Best over­all entry)

Inter­est­ed appli­cants can find full entry cri­te­ria, sub­mis­sion guide­lines, and spon­sor­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties on the offi­cial Glob­al AAM Awards web­site: https://globalaamawards2026.awardsplatform.com/page/XRgQkvzM