US DOT Unveils Its AAM National Strategy with Initial Flights Planned for 2027, Strong Industry Support from eVTOL OEMs

Senior lead­ers from OEMs includ­ing Archer, BETA Tech­nolo­gies, Eve Air Mobil­i­ty, Joby Avi­a­tion and Wisk have shown their sup­port to the U.S. Depart­ment of Transportation’s (DOT) Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) Nation­al Strat­e­gy, which was unveiled yes­ter­day (Wednes­day) in Wash­ing­ton D.C. by Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Sean Duffy.

Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Nation­al Strat­e­gy: A Bold Pol­i­cy Vision for 2026–2036, sig­nals a clear and coor­di­nat­ed com­mit­ment to accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment and deploy­ment of Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty air­craft and sys­tems across the Unit­ed States.

The plan seeks to lever­age exist­ing infra­struc­ture, mod­ernise air traf­fic man­age­ment, pri­or­i­tize US man­u­fac­tur­ing and devel­op a domes­tic work­force to mean­ing­ful­ly scale oper­a­tions in the coun­try.

Addi­tion­al­ly, it envi­sions ini­tial flights in 2027 and new oper­a­tions in rur­al and urban areas by 2030. The plan also points to the many appli­ca­tions for AAM tech­nol­o­gy, which include inter-com­mu­ni­ty and region­al pas­sen­ger flights con­nect­ing small towns to large cities and enhanc­ing car­go, mil­i­tary and emer­gency mis­sions.

Among those who were sat around the table for the brief­ing includ­ed Archer founder and CEO, Adam Gold­stein, Kyle Clark, Founder and CEO of BETA Tech­nolo­gies, Megha Bha­tia, CCO of Eve Air Mobil­i­ty, JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Avi­a­tion, and Sebastien Vigneron, CEO of Wisk.

Archer

For sev­er­al years, Archer has worked close­ly with the DOT, the FAA and oth­er fed­er­al, state and local agen­cies to help shape this path to mar­ket.

That col­lab­o­ra­tion has includ­ed par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Inter­a­gency Work­ing Group, con­tri­bu­tions to the devel­op­ment of the Spe­cial Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Reg­u­la­tion (SFAR) cov­er­ing air taxis and engage­ment through the craft­ing of the eVTOL Inte­gra­tion Pilot Pro­gram.

Also announced yes­ter­day, Archer has part­nered with cities across the U.S. to sub­mit mul­ti­ple appli­ca­tions to launch ini­tial air taxi oper­a­tions under the White House’s eVTOL Inte­gra­tion Pilot Pro­gram (eIPP).

Estab­lished via Pres­i­dent Trump’s “Unleash­ing Drone Dom­i­nance” Exec­u­tive Order, the eIPP is designed to accel­er­ate adop­tion of elec­tric air taxis in major cities across the coun­try by cre­at­ing oper­a­tional path­ways for the top Amer­i­can eVTOL com­pa­nies.

Archer’s appli­ca­tions focus on estab­lish­ing the foun­da­tion required for long-term elec­tric air taxi ser­vices in select U.S. cities. This includes build­ing local oper­a­tions teams, devel­op­ing or upgrad­ing infra­struc­ture to sup­port eVTOL flights and coor­di­nat­ing close­ly with pub­lic safe­ty and emer­gency response agen­cies.

These appli­ca­tions to the eIPP are pro­posed pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships with cities across Cal­i­for­nia, Texas, Flori­da, Geor­gia and New York.

Archer’s appli­ca­tion with the City of Hunt­ing­ton Beach, Cal­i­for­nia is exclu­sive, mean­ing it is the only air taxi OEM that is a part of that appli­ca­tion. This bid sup­ports Archer’s plans for ear­ly air taxi oper­a­tions in and around Los Ange­les as part of its role as the Offi­cial Air Taxi Provider of the 2028 Olympic Games.

Gold­stein said: “We’re past the ques­tion of ‘if’ and firm­ly into ‘when and how. Through our close work with the Admin­is­tra­tion, DOT, FAA and oth­er fed­er­al agen­cies, we now have the clear­est path to mar­ket this indus­try has ever had. The focus now is execution—building, deploy­ing and fly­ing these air­craft here in the Unit­ed States.”

BETA Tech­nolo­gies

This approach from the US DOT com­ple­ments BETA’s mis­sion to cre­ate access and deliv­er endur­ing impact for both rur­al and urban com­mu­ni­ties across Amer­i­ca and beyond through minor improve­ment to exist­ing infra­struc­ture for safe, reli­able, low-cost elec­tric avi­a­tion.

BETA’s inte­grat­ed mod­el – which spans air­craft, charg­ing infra­struc­ture, train­ing and com­po­nents – unique­ly posi­tions the com­pa­ny as a part­ner in advanc­ing the U.S. DOT’s goals of strength­en­ing the domes­tic indus­tri­al base and cre­at­ing high-qual­i­ty avi­a­tion jobs.

Kyle Clark, Founder and CEO of BETA Tech­nolo­gies, said: “Glob­al lead­er­ship in advanced air mobil­i­ty will be held by those who build, cer­ti­fy, and deploy first. This Nation­al strat­e­gy, which lays out a bold, long-term vision for the future of this indus­try, puts the U.S. on that path, and BETA’s prod­ucts are posi­tioned to help deliv­er it.

“This cre­ates a clear path­way for us to con­tin­ue pro­duc­ing Amer­i­can-made, next gen­er­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy to sup­port both the needs of civil­ian com­mu­ni­ties and the mobil­i­ty needs of our troops.”

Through ongo­ing demon­stra­tions, util­i­ty-scale charg­ing deploy­ments, and col­lab­o­ra­tion with air­port oper­a­tors and com­mu­ni­ties nation­wide, BETA is active­ly work­ing to ensure that AAM com­ple­ments exist­ing trans­porta­tion sys­tems and deliv­ers tan­gi­ble pub­lic ben­e­fits such as improved con­nec­tiv­i­ty, emer­gency response capa­bil­i­ties, and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment.

Eve Air Mobil­i­ty

Like most of the oth­er OEMs in the US, Eve Air Mobil­i­ty were active­ly involved in dis­cus­sions sur­round­ing the Strat­e­gy. The com­pa­ny is cur­rent­ly in the late stages of inte­grat­ing a full-scale pro­to­type of its eVTOL air­craft, with ground test­ing large­ly com­plete and the first flight expect­ed by late 2025 or ear­ly 2026.

Bha­tia added: “The AAM Nation­al Strat­e­gy is more than just a roadmap. It is a bold step for­ward in chang­ing how peo­ple trav­el. At Eve Air Mobil­i­ty, we see a future where the skies are not only busier but also smarter, green­er, and bet­ter con­nect­ed. This is our chance to open up a future where advanced air mobil­i­ty changes cities, sup­ports com­mu­ni­ties, and encour­ages future gen­er­a­tions to look beyond roads and run­ways.”

Eve is prepar­ing mul­ti­ple con­form­ing pro­to­types to sup­port an exten­sive flight test and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cam­paign through­out next year and although work­ing towards type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion with Brazil’s ANAC, it plans to dual cer­ti­fy with the FAA so it can start plan­ning glob­al oper­a­tions.

Once its eVTOL air­craft is cer­ti­fied, Eve aims to begin com­mer­cial oper­a­tions, tar­get­ing ini­tial ser­vices like­ly con­cen­trat­ed on urban and region­al point-to-point routes.

Eve isn’t just build­ing air­craft. It’s also devel­op­ing Vec­tor, an urban air traf­fic man­age­ment (ATM) soft­ware plat­form designed to man­age mixed fleet oper­a­tions and inte­grate ver­ti­ports, oper­a­tors, and ser­vice providers. The real-world deploy­ment of Vec­tor at the 2025 São Paulo Grand Prix showed progress toward a scal­able oper­a­tional sys­tem. A broad­er Fleet Oper­a­tions Mod­ule is planned for launch in 2026.

Joby Avi­a­tion

Joby’s advanced progress towards cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and oper­a­tional matu­ri­ty unique­ly posi­tions the com­pa­ny to imme­di­ate­ly engage on the Strategy’s core rec­om­men­da­tions:

• Lever­age Exist­ing or Repur­posed Infra­struc­ture: Joby’s oper­a­tional strat­e­gy has always focused on using a blend of exist­ing and new infra­struc­ture to deploy its air taxi ser­vices. The Strategy’s empha­sis on facil­i­tat­ing the use of “exist­ing or repur­posed infra­struc­ture for near- and medi­um-term AAM oper­a­tions” direct­ly aligns with Joby’s plan to ini­ti­ate com­mer­cial ser­vices with­out requir­ing sig­nif­i­cant upfront invest­ment in infra­struc­ture
• Data Shar­ing with Respec­tive Gov­ern­ment Agen­cies: Joby has led the industry’s reg­u­la­to­ry path, becom­ing the first eVTOL com­pa­ny to final­ize its cer­ti­fi­ca­tion blue­print (G‑1) with the FAA, and is now enter­ing the final stages of val­i­dat­ing all nec­es­sary design, flight and man­u­fac­tur­ing data. Com­bined with fly­ing over 50,000 miles — includ­ing 850 flights in 2025 and oper­at­ing test flights with­in the Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem — means Joby has a sig­nif­i­cant amount of data need­ed for the Strat­e­gy
• Build­ing the Work­force: Careers in avi­a­tion unlock oppor­tu­ni­ties for eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty and Joby has been active­ly engaged in build­ing a skilled AAM work­force here in the Unit­ed States. The com­pa­ny employs more than 2,000 peo­ple glob­al­ly, includ­ing through Joby’s appren­tice­ship pro­gram. Joby’s man­u­fac­tur­ing work­force con­tin­ues to grow at the company’s scaled pro­duc­tion site in Day­ton, Ohio and its pilot pro­duc­tion line in Mari­na, Cal­i­for­nia. Through its avi­a­tion acad­e­my, the com­pa­ny is also build­ing a tal­ent pipeline of pilots and air­craft mechan­ics. The Strategy’s focus on devel­op­ing work­force pipelines, includ­ing lever­ag­ing mil­i­tary expe­ri­ence, sup­ports Joby’s inte­grat­ed man­u­fac­tur­ing and oper­at­ing strat­e­gy, as well as its devel­op­ment of dual-use tech­nolo­gies for U.S. defense
• Auton­o­my & Safe­ty: The com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing an avi­a­tion auton­o­my roadmap aligns with work already under­way at Joby. Joby’s Super­pi­lot™ autonomous flight tech­nol­o­gy, val­i­dat­ed over thou­sands of flight miles, pro­vides crit­i­cal oper­a­tional data to advance the Strategy’s goals for increas­ing­ly autonomous and scaled oper­a­tions. In addi­tion, Joby has par­tic­i­pat­ed in two sim­u­la­tions with the FAA and NASA to val­i­date inte­gra­tion of eVTOL oper­a­tions using exist­ing air traf­fic con­trol pro­ce­dures into the Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem around Los Ange­les Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, Dal­las Love Field and DFW air­ports

JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, said: “This strat­e­gy is tan­gi­ble proof that the U.S. gov­ern­ment rec­og­nizes the val­ue of the AAM indus­try, and it comes as we’re prepar­ing for ear­ly air taxi oper­a­tions in U.S. cities through the eIPP pro­gram, cre­at­ed by an Exec­u­tive Order this sum­mer.

“It’s a pow­er­ful sig­nal that our fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, in coor­di­na­tion with state, local and trib­al com­mu­ni­ties, is pre­pared to ush­er in the next gen­er­a­tion of U.S. lead­er­ship in avi­a­tion.”

Wisk

Wisk has also strong­ly endorsed the pub­li­ca­tion of the Strat­e­gy and the com­pa­ny’s Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and Pol­i­cy team were present in Wash­ing­ton D.C. to hear how it will pro­vide the nation­al frame­work need­ed to accel­er­ate the safe, effi­cient and equi­table inte­gra­tion of autonomous and pilot­ed AAM into the Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem (NAS).

Wisk’s foun­da­tion­al per­spec­tive on auton­o­my was direct­ly inte­grat­ed into the Nation­al Strat­e­gy, rein­forc­ing the com­pa­ny’s vision that auton­o­my is a crit­i­cal enabler for safe­ty and the industry’s suc­cess.

Wisk CEO Sebastien Vigneron, said: “The release of this Nation­al Strat­e­gy is a his­toric and piv­otal moment for the entire AAM indus­try and for the future of U.S. aero­space lead­er­ship.

“For Wisk, the Strat­e­gy rec­og­nizes that auton­o­my is the key to unlock­ing the full poten­tial of AAM. Auton­o­my can enhance safe­ty, facil­i­tate scal­ing to meet pub­lic demand, and help reduce oper­a­tional costs. This fed­er­al recog­ni­tion aligns with our mis­sion, and we’re eager to prove out our tech­nolo­gies.”

Wisk views the Strat­e­gy as an essen­tial umbrel­la frame­work that will coor­di­nate and pri­or­i­tize all sub­se­quent fed­er­al AAM ini­tia­tives that Wisk plans to par­tic­i­pate in, such as the FAA/DOT’s eVTOL and AAM Inte­gra­tion Pilot Pro­gram (eIPP). This uni­fied approach is cru­cial for the U.S. to main­tain its glob­al lead­er­ship in avi­a­tion and estab­lish a robust domes­tic indus­try that will expand glob­al­ly.

The Strat­e­gy also rein­forces the fed­er­al government’s com­mit­ment to mod­ern­iza­tion efforts cur­rent­ly under­way to sup­port high-vol­ume and autonomous oper­a­tions.

These efforts include the Brand New ATC Sys­tem, the estab­lish­ment of the Cen­ter for Advanced Avi­a­tion Tech­nolo­gies (CAAT)—where Wisk and its affil­i­ate, Sky­Grid, were present at the inau­gur­al meeting—and ongo­ing work to imple­ment the 2024 FAA Reau­tho­riza­tion.

GAMA

Also present in Wash­ing­ton D.C. was James Vio­la, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Man­u­fac­tur­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (GAMA). He said:

“This strat­e­gy will ensure that the U.S. will be a glob­al leader in AAM through the sector’s inte­gra­tion into the nation­al air­space sys­tem with a focus on adapt­ing and improv­ing infra­struc­ture; strength­en­ing the avi­a­tion work­force; adapt­ing and improv­ing infra­struc­ture; expand­ing secu­ri­ty, safe­ty and automa­tion; and fur­ther­ing com­mu­ni­ty plan­ning and engage­ment.

“The growth of the AAM sec­tor will facil­i­tate addi­tion­al trans­porta­tion options, cre­ate jobs, stim­u­late eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty and com­pet­i­tive­ness, and fos­ter fur­ther advance­ment in aero­space tech­nol­o­gy.

The AAM Inter­a­gency Work­ing Group was estab­lished by Con­gress through the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Coor­di­na­tion and Lead­er­ship Act, which was signed into law in 2022.

GAMA led the indus­try effort for this leg­is­la­tion. The law autho­rized the Sec­re­tary of Trans­porta­tion to estab­lish an inter­a­gency work­ing group com­posed of lead­ers from key gov­ern­ment agen­cies to plan for and coor­di­nate efforts for the advance­ment of the AAM indus­try.

The work­ing group has been tasked to review and make rec­om­men­da­tions for the fed­er­al role in the AAM sec­tor, beyond the ini­tial crit­i­cal stage of air­craft cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and oper­a­tions, with a focus on eco­nom­ic and work­force oppor­tu­ni­ties, poten­tial phys­i­cal and dig­i­tal secu­ri­ty risks and mit­i­ga­tions, and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment.

NBAA

With advanced air mobil­i­ty tech­nolo­gies rapid­ly matur­ing, NBAA’s Emerg­ing Tech­nolo­gies Com­mit­tee and the NBAA AAM Round­table have con­tin­u­al­ly encour­aged pol­i­cy­mak­ers to devel­op path­ways to ensure AAM air­craft can make a safe, smooth tran­si­tion into avi­a­tion sys­tems.

Matt Byrd, vice of NBAA’s Board of Direc­tors and pres­i­dent and CEO of Hill­wood Avi­a­tion, said: “On behalf of NBAA and the association’s Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Round­table, I want to thank Con­gress for direct­ing this plan, and the DOT for deliv­er­ing a nation­al strat­e­gy, coor­di­nat­ed across 25 fed­er­al agen­cies, which blazes a path for­ward for the safe inte­gra­tion of AAM into the nation­al air­space sys­tem

“These air­craft will bring enor­mous ben­e­fits to the U.S. – more man­u­fac­tur­ing, more exports and jobs, greater mobil­i­ty and an improved abil­i­ty to access remote loca­tions. We com­mend the admin­is­tra­tion for its com­mit­ment to AAM, and we look for­ward to work­ing with gov­ern­ment and indus­try lead­ers to make this strate­gic vision a real­i­ty.”

Over the past year, the indus­try has marked a series of impor­tant mile­stones sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment and use of AAM in the U.S. For exam­ple:

• Last month, the FAA began an Elec­tric Ver­ti­cal Take­off and Land­ing Inte­gra­tion Pilot Pro­gram to fast track air taxis to mar­ket
• In Octo­ber 2024, the FAA unveiled a Spe­cial Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Reg­u­la­tion to estab­lish rules for the safe, effi­cient inte­gra­tion of AAM air­craft into the nation’s avi­a­tion sys­tem
• In June, Pres­i­dent Trump signed an exec­u­tive order, wel­comed by NBAA, to accel­er­ate the safe inte­gra­tion of unmanned air­craft sys­tem (UAS) into the nation­al air­space sys­tem, and direct­ed the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) to begin the pilot pro­gram

The AAM Nation­al Strat­e­gy is the cul­mi­na­tion of years of work by the AAM Inter­a­gency Work­ing Group (IWG) estab­lished by Con­gress, which includes 19 Fed­er­al depart­ments, includ­ing the DOT, Depart­ment of Defense and NASA.

The U.S. Nation­al Strat­e­gy on Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty can be accessed here. Addi­tion­al­ly, you can watch the brief­ing via YouTube