(FAA) with directives on how to regulate the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry

Momentum is building on Capitol Hill to provide the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with directives on how to regulate the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. In a discussion at the Honeywell Air Mobility Summit in Washington on Sept. 21, leading members of the subcommittee on aviation in the House of Representatives said that Congress could include specific guidelines to the FAA regarding AAM initiatives in its next reauthorization bill for the agency, work on which is expected in the 2023 calendar year.

The Senate is likewise setting AAM as a priority for next year’s FAA reauthorization bill. On Sept. 26, the Senate Commerce Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing on new entrants to aviation, including electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and other AAM vehicles. It was the first Senate hearing on the planned FAA legislation. In a statement, committee chair Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) stressed the central role that Congress is expected to play in guiding the incorporation of these technologies.

Biden Signs AAM Act into Law

On Oct. 17, President Biden signed into law the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act. The bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill S.516, directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish an interagency working group to identify the elements needed to mature the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. The new law represents a milestone in the federal government’s efforts to act on emerging AAM concepts and technologies such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

The new law requires the working group to complete its review and submit a report on the steps ahead within one year. The report should detail a variety of elements to further AAM in the US, including the needed regulatory and operational frameworks, relevant federal programs, and the interests and roles of federal, state, local and tribal governments affected by AAM operations, among other areas. This report should form the basis of an AAM National Strategy, which will include recommendations for actions to support AAM.

The law is the product of more than a year of work on AAM legislation. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) introduced the bill on March 1, 2021, shortly after a similar bill — H.R.1339 — was introduced in the US House of Representatives (see “Washington Report,” Vertiflite, May/ June 2021). The House version was introduced by Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas) and included a bipartisan group of cosponsors.

Though virtually identical, the two draft bills contained minor technical and wording differences — the House version specified that the Undersecretary of Transportation for Policy would chair the working group, a requirement that the Senate adopted in its final version of the bill. The Senate version, meanwhile, emphasized that the report should form the basis of an “AAM National Strategy,” which was likewise included in the final version.