Eight regions across the US, including New York and New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will take part in a three-year pilot program that will see new aircraft designs ferrying people and cargo around the country even before they formally receive full certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The companies building the tech say their aircraft are quieter, cheaper, and release fewer emissions than helicopters or airplanes. Some promise totally autonomous trips. Many involved in the project, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, and ultra-short takeoff aircraft, require way less space to operate, landing and taking off outside of traditional airports and closer to where people live and work. The companies outline futures in which regular people can zip between neighboring cities in a matter of minutes, sailing above traffic and reordering the economy as they go.
On an earnings call with investors earlier this month, Adam Goldstein, the CEO and founder of Archer Aviation, one of the firms involved, called the federal pilot program “our Waymo moment,” a science fiction project turned real life. “Now the goal is to have half a million people in the biggest cities in the country start to see these aircraft as part of your everyday commute, just like they started to see Waymos every day,” he said.
Archer’s electric air taxi, called Midnight, is built to carry up to four passengers on 60 to 90-minute trips. The company will take part in pilot projects in Texas, Florida, and New York. Goldstein told investors that Midnight would complete another important step toward certification “in the coming quarters.” The company has received funding from automaker Stellantis and United Airlines.
Other companies involved in the pilot projects include the small electric plane manufacturer Beta Technologies, Toyota- and Jet Blue-funded air taxi maker Joby Aviation, and Electra, which is building a hybrid electric ultra short aircraft. All four of those firms have completed test flights in the US.
“What we love about the [pilot] is the chance to demonstrate that this is not fantasy,” Electra CEO Marc Allen tells WIRED. “It's not science fiction. It's in the real world.”
The Trump administration first signaled its support for the new aviation tech in June, when the president signed an executive order meant to cut “burdensome red tape” around the operation of drones, “flying cars,” and supersonic aircraft in the US. A plan released by the Biden administration in 2023 aimed to deploy air taxis by 2028, in time for the Los Angeles Olympics.
Because eVTOLs are new, it has taken years for the companies that build them to receive full certifications from the federal government. The novel aircraft need new rules and safety standards, and have to go through several rounds of certifications before they can begin to carry paying passengers. None of the companies involved in the pilot projects have completed the full certification process.
The pilot program “is focused on informing standards and future policy development and is not a mechanism to bypass certification requirements,” FAA spokesperson Donnell Evans wrote in a statement to WIRED. “Aircraft included in the partnership must already be going through the FAA’s formal type certification process.”
The US aviation industry is trying to pull even with China, where the government has given homegrown firm EHang certifications to operate autonomous eVTOLs. The company says it will start by operating sightseeing flights in a few Chinese cities. Dubai plans to start providing air taxis in eVTOLs with Joby Aviation as early as this year.
A video published by the US Department of Transportation on Monday opens with the Jetsons zipping around Orbit City in their flying car. The new aircraft “are going to make the airspace far more interesting and far more fun, and we have to be prepared for that,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy narrates.
The pilot projects will focus on urban air taxi services and cargo and logistics networks, but also on regional passenger transportation and emergency response operations. Many of the firms involved also have military and defense funding and contracts.
