WOMEN IN AAM PODCAST: Beyond Air Taxis: The Real Future of Advanced Air Mobility

Our next pod­cast episode is live! And this week, it’s a spe­cial Women in AAM edi­tion where chair­per­son Mar­i­lyn Pear­son has an in-depth dis­cus­sion with Elan Head, a heli­copter pilot and Senior Edi­tor at The Air Cur­rent.

Elan empha­sizes that while urban air taxis attract atten­tion, the true excite­ment lies in the tech­no­log­i­cal innovations—particularly in elec­tric propul­sion, auton­o­my, and flight controls—that could reshape avi­a­tion more broad­ly. They explore chal­lenges in pilot train­ing, not­ing that eVTOLs will still require sig­nif­i­cant skill and robust edu­ca­tion despite ear­ly claims of sim­plic­i­ty.

The con­ver­sa­tion also address­es indus­try hype, delayed cer­ti­fi­ca­tion time­lines, and result­ing pub­lic skep­ti­cism, with Head argu­ing that expec­ta­tions were ini­tial­ly unre­al­is­tic. Promis­ing ear­ly use cas­es such as tourism and short region­al trans­port are high­light­ed as prac­ti­cal entry points.

They also exam­ine reg­u­la­to­ry dif­fer­ences, glob­al competition—especially from China—and the com­plex­i­ty of cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process­es. Over­all, the episode under­scores both the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial and the prac­ti­cal hur­dles fac­ing the AAM indus­try.

Please click on the Play but­ton below to lis­ten to the episode, which is also avail­able on whichev­er pod­cast plat­form you use.