FAA tables blueprint for initial air taxi and other UAM activities

In another sign that the advent of urban air mobility (UAM) services like air taxis is near, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued its latest blueprint on how those new, largely battery-powered aircraft will be phased in during early operation.

With air taxi developers like Archer, Joby, and Wisk steadily advancing through their respective certification programs – and aiming to begin service in 2025 – release of the FAA’s updated plan for introducing UAM air transport is not exactly premature. In it, the regulator describes what it calls “a crawl-walk-run approach” to managing early-stage new aerial activity. Traffic will then become denser and more complex as craft, infrastructure, and supporting air traffic tech matures.

Read: Archer, United announce air taxi link between Chicago and O’Hare

The FAA’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Concept of Operations plan breaks up that near-to-mid-term launch of UAM activity in three essential steps – initial, midterm, and mature. Each involves a half a dozen factors by which air taxi and other operators can gauge progress. Those include criteria like traffic density, flight frequency, degrees of automation, regulatory evolution, and complexity of airspace activity. 

To begin with, much existing infrastructure and flight procedures will remain the same before shifting to meet increased capabilities, the document says.

“Under the blueprint, (UAM) operations will begin at a low rate with air taxis flying much as helicopters do today,” an FAA synopsis of the complete plan says. “They’ll use existing routes and infrastructure such as helipads and early vertiports. Pilots will communicate with air traffic controllers where required.”

“As the number of operations increases, air taxis are expected to fly in corridors between major airports and vertiports in city centers,” the blueprint continues. “The complexity of the corridors could increase over time from single one-way paths to routes serving multiple flows of aircraft flying in both directions. Over time, these corridors could link an increasing number of routes between vertiports.”

In the same manner, early-stage UAM operators are expected to use current flight procedures for helicopters or small planes. Air taxis will at first largely be piloted, with “automation and real-time data sharing between aircraft… likely (to) play increasing roles” as experience and tech advance.

Read: White House tables priorities for AAM services, like enterprise drones and eVTOL air taxis

Though not legally binding, the FAA’s blueprint for early-era UAM development offers the regulator, legislators, and companies overseeing air taxi services an informative framework of how the increasingly crowded lower-level skies will evolve. 

The FAA, which developed its plan with input from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and UAM industry stakeholders, calls it an important tool for air taxi and other service providers, and “a common frame of reference to the FAA, NASA, and industry to help guide their research and decision-making.”