The NBAA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Roundtable, which recently met and celebrated its two-year anniversary, is working with the bipartisan congressional AAM Caucus and others in Congress to advance pro-AAM policies in the FAA reauthorization bill. Current FAA authorization is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30, 2023.
“Electric aviation and AAM represent the next generation of air transportation in this country with the first commercial AAM flight scheduled to occur in 2025,” said NBAA senior v-p of government affairs Kristie Greco Johnson. “To achieve this deadline, the FAA must keep pace with aircraft type certifications and the promised regulatory schedule,” including the anticipated issuance of the FAA’s upcoming Special FAR. To do this, the FAA must hire and retain a workforce with the right technical expertise and Congress must make the necessary infrastructure investments, NBAA noted.
In 2022, the NBAA AAM Roundtable advocated for two measures that became law, including S.516, the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act, which requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish an interagency working group to review and examine factors that will allow the maturation of the AAM ecosystem within the U.S. and develop an AAM national strategy. It also supported the Advanced Aviation Infrastructure Modernization Act establishing U.S. Department of Transportation grants to assist state, local, and tribal governments and other entities in planning infrastructure to support AAM operations.
Founding members of NBAA’s AAM Roundtable include Joby Aviation, Lilium, Wisk, Beta Technologies, Supernal, and Hillwood Aviation. The roundtable is focused on maintaining the U.S. position as a global leader in aviation and aerospace, as well as harnessing the full potential of AAM.