FROM THE INSTITUTE
At the cutting edge of aerospace innovation, novel advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft and technologies are poised to redefine how passengers and cargo move through complex, multi-use transportation networks. What early use cases could reap the benefits of this opportunity to enhance door-to-door mobility? The AIAA AAM Multimodal Working Group, in partnership with ITS America formally began this conversation with a webinar in June 2025, and expanded their programming with an in-person workshop at 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, “Early Use Cases for AAM Integration in Multimodal Transportation.”
Full Story (Aerospace America)
Tag: AAM
Beta Technologies Files for U.S. IPO
Reuters reports, “Electric aircraft maker Beta Technologies filed for an initial public offering in the United States on Monday, the latest company to join the rush to tap a record-breaking bull run in the equity market. Easing trade tensions, robust stock markets and pent-up investor demand have combined to create one of the busiest windows for listings in years, with technology, aerospace and green energy firms leading the charge.”
Full Story (Reuters)
North Carolina Partners with Georgia to Study AAM ‘Interstate in the Sky’
Flying Magazine reports, “The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) Division of Aviation and Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) are joining forces to study a first-of-its-kind testbed for autonomous, electric, and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The state transportation departments announced a partnership to create the nation’s first “interstate in the sky” for AAM aircraft, including uncrewed drones and eVTOL air taxis. The proposed corridor is intended to serve as a “real-world testbed” for the technology and could one day bring commercial AAM passenger and cargo operations to the Southeast.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
Beta Technologies’ CX300 Begins Test Flights in Norway
Flying Magazine reports, “Fresh off a multiweek European ‘Grand Tour’ comprising stops in Ireland, the U.K., France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Denmark, Beta Technologies’ all-electric CX300 is conducting its first test flights in Norway. The aircraft, tail number N214BT, was recently delivered to customer Bristow Group, whose pilots took it to the skies for the first time on Friday. The flight marks the start of a six-month series of evaluations within Norway’s international test arena for zero- and low-emission aviation.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)
New Avionics Tech Enabling Rapid Emergence of Advanced Air Mobility
Avionics International reports, “Once a speculative concept reserved for futurists, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is now rapidly emerging as a practical reality, thanks largely to revolutionary developments in avionics. From electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to highly automated flight control systems, avionics is the nerve center of this next-generation ecosystem, orchestrating the delicate balance of safety, autonomy, and sustainability. AAM seeks to redefine how people and goods move across urban and regional landscapes. Instead of being confined to traditional runways or existing air corridors, new aircraft designs such as eVTOLs are built to operate flexibly within dense environments.”
Full Story (Avionics International)
Advanced Air Mobility, AI Crucial Topics Planned for 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum
By Jeremy Wang, Co-founder and COO, Ribbit
The AIAA AVIATION Forum is the venue to tackle both longstanding challenges from detect-and-avoid – to emerging trends like how we’re dealing with decarbonization – combined with autonomy and sustainability coming together on the same platforms.
The event is regarded as the forefront of aviation business, research, development, and technology. This year’s theme, “Navigating the Future: Sustainability, Safety, and Innovation.” I am particularly excited that the program we’ve designed promises to deliver insights about the future of advanced air mobility (AAM) and autonomy.
We expect over 2,500 aviation professionals from academia, industry and government to attend the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum on 21–25 July in Las Vegas.
Convergence of Autonomy and Sustainability
An example of convergence is Joby Aviation’s landmark emission-free hydrogen-electric flight last summer that demonstrated the potential for emissions-free regional travel. The air taxi featured a hydrogen-based power plant on board.
There’s talk about hybrid electric being incorporated into some of the newer eVTOL aircraft concepts to try and address the range challenges of pure battery systems.
Must-see Sessions
The Forum’s opening plenary and Forum 360 will give us a glimpse into the aviation industry in 2050. Our opening speakers will share their insights that will define aviation in the next three decades.
“Injecting intelligence,” or bringing together autonomy, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning into platforms, will serve as one of the daylong themes of the conference.
The world is entering a state of increased tension between longstanding adversaries and democratic countries. That’s spurring a lot of pressure for us to innovate more quickly and to onboard new capabilities sooner than we ever have in the past. Three of the Forums 360 panel discussions will cover some of the biggest challenges and opportunities. One will cover U.S. collaborative combat aircraft developments, featuring the director of the U.S. Air Force’s 40th Test Flight Squadron from Eglin Air Force Base and the deputy director of Data & Analytics Enablement for National Defense Canada.
A key theme with autonomy is the concept of affordable mass, a strategy for developing and deploying low-cost weapon systems and aircraft to counter high-volume adversary capabilities.
There is a huge capability gap between the large Predator and Reaper UAS and the tiny drones used in defense. In this “Goldilocks zone,” aircraft can be scaled to better address the threats from integrated air defense systems.
Autonomy is going to be pretty critical to operating in the kind of environment we’re now seeing in Eastern Europe and increasingly over the Indo Pacific and possibly the Arctic.
We also will be exploring the role of AI and new types of sensors in these autonomous systems and how they should be certified, as well as concepts of human machine teaming and human autonomy teaming.
Finally, the “AI Certification: Busting the Myth” session will address the most prevalent misconceptions about AI technologies in aviation, ranging from “AI will one day directly control aircraft” to “AI systems are not safe.” The speakers will ground the talk in conceptual, scientific evidence and practical, operational experience.
To hear from dozens of expert speakers and join us in the conversation, register now for 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 21–25 July, Las Vegas.
About the Author
Jeremy Wang, a third-year member of the AIAA AVIATION Forum’s Guiding Coalition, is the co-founder and COO of Ribbit, a venture-backed startup developing dual-use autonomous aircraft to serve rural, coastal, and remote regions. Ribbit is credited with the first fully automated gate-to-gate flight in Canada and serving federal contracts delivering advanced autonomy for air and joint operations. Prior to Ribbit, Wang was the CTO of Canada’s top-ranked commercial drone operator where he oversaw the development of special-purpose drones for industrial and defense applications.
Register now for AIAA AVIATION Forum
The 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum is your direct flight to the forefront of aviation business, research, development, and technology. Registration is now open.
Register for the event here and save before the 23 June Early Bird deadline.
AIAA Releases Report Advocating for Certification of Advanced Air Mobility Vehicles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2025 – Reston, Va. – With novel aircraft poised to usher in a global revolution in aerial operations and travel, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has released recommendations addressing regulatory and other hurdles that could hinder the certification and integration of novel aircraft in the National Airspace System (NAS).
The report, “Challenges to the Commercialization of Advanced Air Mobility,” is written by the AIAA Certification Task Force composed of technical aviation experts with public and private sector experience. The report is available for download here.
“The aerospace industry is on the cusp of an exciting new era of flight,” says AIAA CEO Clay Mowry. “New aerial vehicle technologies coming online today will enable capabilities we are only just imagining. We urge our lawmakers to work together to prioritize regulations and investments that ensure U.S. leadership in aviation innovation.”
The report notes that despite successes in meeting many technological challenges, regulatory and legal hurdles remain. Navigation, type and production certification, and urban traffic management present significant barriers in advanced air mobility becoming a commercial reality. Recommendations include:
- Establishing a standing working group of government and stakeholder organizations to create a unified national plan for employing advanced air mobility vehicles, driving new standards to ensure safety and support innovation.
- Revisiting current laws and regulations with an eye toward “future proofing,” or ensuring all laws are applicable to both legacy and emerging aircraft systems.
- Creating a workforce development plan that sets a foundation of awareness about infrastructure, certification requirements, and NAS management for AAM vehicle startups as well as other professionals and decision makers involved in the development of regulations and operations involving novel aircraft in the National Airspace.
Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell
About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Aviation Week’s Check 6 Podcast: Beyond The Hype—What’s Happening With Air Taxis
In Aviation Week’s most recent Check 6 Podcast, “Beyond The Hype—What’s Happening With Air Taxis,” Aviation Week Managing Editor Ben Goldstein is joined by Aviation Week editors Graham Warwick and Jens Flottau, as well as Sergio Cecutta, founder and partner at SMG Consulting, to discuss “the progress underway in the fast-growing advanced air mobility industry.”
Listen to Podcast (Aviation Week)
Transitioning AAM Into Reality at AIAA AVIATION Forum
By AUVSI News
Originally published by AUVSI
The 2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum will be held 29 July–2 August in Las Vegas, and this year’s event aims to bridge the gap between visionary concepts and tangible technological reality.
Starr Ginn, Advanced Concepts and Partnerships at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, served on the forum’s Guiding Coalition. AUVSI met with Ms. Ginn to learn more about NASA’s participation at AIAA AVIATION Forum and the Agency’s vision for how Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) will transform aviation’s role in the everyday movement of people and goods.
Ginn’s Background and AAM Expertise
Ms. Ginn has 27 years of experience conducting one-of-a-kind flight tests. Since 2011, she has played a critical role at NASA Armstrong to develop a roadmap for the AAM ecosystem. In her current role, she builds long-term strategies for complex system integration in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and industry.
She recently led the planning, development, and execution of the Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign (AAM NC) series, which consists of flight testing an experimental AAM ecosystem of novel eVTOL and cargo vehicles, infrastructure, and airspace management technologies in the context of increasingly complex safety scenarios enabled by automation.
In parallel to her work on electric propulsion and energy storage, she has also pushed research and certifiable automation software architectures to increase the safety of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
In addition, she is a proponent for encouraging young women to get into aviation and mechanical engineering careers. As she works with university students and interns at NASA, she says, “It’s exciting to see when they learn about this new area of opportunity” with AAM careers.
Big-Picture View for the AAM Ecosystem
NASA has been working continually on UAM Research Roadmaps assessing where industry is and making sure NASA is providing research to assist them in the near term, mid-term, and long term.
The Agency’s objective is to safely support operations at scale in the National Airspace System (NAS). Ms. Ginn explains her vision of tens of thousands of air taxis and cargo aircraft operations in existing airports and new locations that are closer to urban areas. Reaching this vision will require a lot of new certifiable automation, new airspace tools and routes, and increased digital communications that integrate into the very safe airspace system the U.S. has today.
In the nearer term, Ms. Ginn sees NASA being able to help in a variety of areas, including:
- Piloted eVTOL operations and safety systems
- Studying human-machine interaction
- Making operations more efficient at current airports
- Supporting portable charging infrastructure to support electric flight before large-scale charging infrastructure investments are possible
- Determining efficient routes and how we can decrease an IFR approach area
In the longer term, Ms. Ginn says NASA is conducting research on automation. More research on 1:N operations and how they will push the envelope of NASA’s vision for UAM. She described how industry is doing a “crawl, walk, run approach” to certification, starting with piloted cargo operations with 2 pilots. Eventually, as the industry transitions to increasing levels of autonomy, there will be opportunities to increase efficiency – but there will also be challenges to prove safety and compliance via detect-and-avoid and flight path management.
AAM Certification, Automation, and Software Considerations
Considering what’s ahead for software and automation, Ms. Ginn says, “I would really like to look at how multiple algorithms being operated at same time, and how automation software can determine which of those algorithms is eminent or most important to safely avoid a hazard.” Software for ground collision avoidance, air collision avoidance, geofencing, and object avoidance like towers are all using different kinds of algorithms relying on different sensors. Ms. Ginn is interested in how software architecture determines which algorithm is needed to protect the vehicle at any given moment and how the system switches between different inputs and algorithms prioritization.
Ms. Ginn emphasizes that autonomy software must verifiable, deterministic, and predictable to be safe enough to fly in the NAS. This will be a challenging and complex state of operations for both NASA and industry to achieve.
This year’s AIAA AVIATION Forum will host discussions on how AI can help keep pilots or aircraft safe – beyond just those on the vehicle. The session will explore ways that AI is being used across the entire aviation ecosystem, from ATC to pilot training, as well as the software concepts behind these types of AI.
Register now for AIAA AVIATION Forum
2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum will feature participation from every NASA site, with representatives sharing AAM research on different use cases, from regional cargo operations to urban air mobility operations, to different types of aircraft configurations and control systems. In addition to AAM, NASA experts will also discuss hypersonics, supersonics, and sustainability.
Register for the event here and save before the Early Bird deadline on June 10th.
From Vision Through Velocity … Transitioning Technology into Reality
By Russell Boyce, AIAA Aeronautics Domain Lead
Originally published by Royal Aeronautical Society
In the pursuit of a sustainable and high-tech future, researchers, engineers, and pioneers are driving innovation in aviation. 2024 will be a landmark year with the first certification of electric VTOL aircraft, flight testing of new supersonic vehicles, expanded use of automated or autonomous systems, and continued progress of military programs. As aviation accelerates, innovators are bridging the gap between visionary concepts and tangible technological reality every day.
However … the world is facing rapidly evolving generational-scale challenges – societal, economic, environmental, security – alongside those rapidly evolving technical capabilities. How do we achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while simultaneously advancing multimodal mobility solutions that take the world forward? What could a disruptive “AI-in-the-DNA” future look like for the world, and for the mobility solutions we will trust? What does the future highly skilled workforce look like, how will they be different from today, and how will they have been educated and trained?
The aerospace sector cannot and does not exist in isolation from such challenges, nor from the broad landscape – or ecosystem – of policy, technology, investment, business, government, and end-user stakeholders grappling with them. Our community is brilliant at technology, but that’s not enough. It is critical that we embrace system-of-systems thinking, building understanding and collaboration across the ecosystem of stakeholders, so that the technological innovations we have no difficulty in creating are financeable, certifiable, publicly acceptable, and driven by and tuned for the challenges.
Over the coming decade, we will see many new aeronautics capabilities introduced. The next generation will experience flight in ways we are just imagining. AIAA is excited about advancing these opportunities as we move from vision through velocity, transitioning technology into reality. AIAA is even more excited about the ways that will unfold as partnerships with non-aerospace stakeholders to address global needs.
To join this timely conversation, plan to attend the 2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 29 July–2 August 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thought leaders from across the ecosystem will share, discuss, and debate the opportunities and challenges. New advances in aviation will be unveiled across a vast technical program. The conversation will flow from the big picture view from 50,000 feet, through developments poised to shift the transportation paradigm, to addressing global challenges, embracing transformational technologies both from within and from without (there’s blue sky over the horizon), and finally asking “where to from here?”
We cannot predict the entire future of aviation, but the AIAA community is set to lead its shaping. Visit aiaa.org/aviation for more information.
To join the conversation and learn more, attend the 2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 29 July–2 August, in Las Vegas. Visit: aiaa.org/aviation for more information.
About the Author
Russell Boyce, an AIAA Fellow, has spent 35 years building and leading teams in the development of hypersonic technologies and intelligent space systems. His roles have included DSTO Chair for Hypersonics at University of Queensland, and Chair for Intelligent Space Systems and Director of UNSW Canberra Space at University of New South Wales. The latter included spinning off multiple space companies, and playing a lead role in the establishment of the Australian Space Agency. Boyce is also a regular facilitator for senior executive strategic thinking with the global top 5 business school INSEAD, co-publishes the monthly podcast “Leadership in a Disruptive World,” and is passionate about combining disruptive, out-of-the-box thinking with the development of current and future leaders. As AIAA’s Aeronautics Domain Lead, Boyce is working with his Space and Aerospace R&D Domain counterparts to bring about the system-of-systems thinking and actions needed for the future of aerospace.