FAA 对 eVTOL 商业载客飞行设定高门槛

A regulatory official suggests achieving air taxi type certificates may be an easier path than securing commercial-flight approvals under eIPP programme.
Developers of air taxis and other novel aircraft face a tough regulatory path to operate pre-certification revenue flights under the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) air taxi pilot programme, according to an agency official.

The FAA has previously said commercial flights might be possible under its Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Programme (eIPP). Through the effort, the FAA has partnered with states and aircraft developers to complete demonstration flights and to support the fledgling sector.

Companies involved are meanwhile seeking type certificates for their designs, though that process has taken much longer than many firms anticipated.

Speaking on 20 October, Caitlin Locke, associate administrator for the FAA’s safety oversight and certification office, says revenue flights of not-certificated aircraft under the eIPP programme are far from assured and that any requests for such approvals would face intense FAA reviews.

“Even if we were going to allow some sort of… commercial operations, it would be extremely limited,” Locke tells FlightGlobal. “There would be conditions and limitations bestowed on it, and the easier path would just be to get your [type certificate] done.

“Ultimately, it’s still an experimental vehicle,” Locke adds.

Leading eVTOL developers are already flying their aircraft under experimental certificates that permit research, development and related operations.

“There’s a lot that they can already do under their special experimental certificates,” Locke says. “They’re going to have to decide: do I pursue something under the eIPP, or do I just get the [type certificate] done, and then there’s no limitations.”

She notes the FAA has established a process to guide its review of any requests for revenue eIPP flights, though developers have not yet submitted such requests.

“We worked out a tiered structure for how we would make the decision,” Locke says.

She also notes commercial operations would need to advance the eIPP’s purpose, which is to demonstrate air taxi capabilities and operations.

“If there’s something that someone is proposing to do [that] would include passenger carrying operations for commercial purposes, then it would have to be a really good justification for what we’re going to learn from it,” Locke says.

Under the eIPP programme, rolled out by the Trump administration in September 2025, developers including Ampaire, Beta Technologies, Electra and Joby Aviation have already completed non-commercial demonstration flights. More demonstrations are to follow.

The FAA initially said the effort would include “pre-certification” operations, though reports then surfaced that some limited commercial flights might be allowed. Those flights would otherwise only be permitted for aircraft with type certificates.

Earlier this month, the FAA told FlightGlobal it has ability under the programme to “issue certain waivers and grant regulatory relief to operations for complex operations, following risk-based safety evaluations”.

The agency expects some commercial eVTOL flights will happen before the eIPP programme concludes but says “some applicants may achieve that capability through the normal FAA certification process”, it adds.

FAA administrator Bryan Bedford also last week addressed possible eIPP commercial flights.

“It could involve non-human movements of goods and services. It could be a heart transplant organ. It could be biomedical stuff. It could be cargo,” he says. “Right now we are still trying to look at… the different use cases for how this stuff will have to get integrated into the network.”

The post FAA sets high bar for commercial air taxi flights under eVTOL pilot programme first appeared on FlightGlobal.