For the past two years, U.S. developers and prospective operators of eVTOL aircraft have been on the edge of their seats, waiting to be told what will be expected of them to launch commercial air services. The waiting ended on October 22 when the FAA published its Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) for the “Integration of Powered Lift: Pilot Certification and Operation”—an 880-page tome the industry is still trying to digest in detail.
That publication was staged on the opening day of this year’s NBAA-BACE trade show in America’s gambling capital, Las Vegas, seeming highly symbolic. The business aviation industry has increasingly emerged as an early adopter of the first new category of aircraft in decades, and the somewhat precocious advanced air mobility sector seems to many to be one big roll of the dice.
The industry’s initial verdict seems to have been relief. In 2022, the FAA pitched something of a curve ball when it unexpectedly resolved not to stick a previously settled framework to certify eVTOLs under existing FAR Part 23 rules. Instead, it determined that the FAR 21.17(b) special class of requirements should apply.
Type certification, of course, must come first and several eVTOL frontrunners such as Joby and Archer appear to be in the latter stages of this process, even if it remains in doubt whether they will meet earlier declared timelines for reaching this milestone before New Year’s Eve 2024. Establishing compliance with the new SFAR could well take longer as companies determine what key requirements—such as aircraft energy reserves (governing range) and pilot training—can be accommodated. The new rules will apply to Part 91, Part 135, and Part 136 operations.
Such was the frenzy of anticipation just before the SFAR’s publication last week, that rumors started to fly that Joby might be about to announce it had achieved type certification. This prompted a rival company to contact me, in full FOMO mode, essentially to ask why they weren’t being gossiped about along these lines.
Fun facts. The SFAR publication was announced by FAA administrator Michael Whitaker, who was previously the chief operating officer with eVTOL developer Supernal. He made a point of saying that he had recused himself from involvement in preparing the SFAR. Work on the document started under the jurisdiction of previous FAA administrator Billy Nolen, who is now chief regulatory officer with rival manufacturer Archer.
Wiggle Room Is a Wonderful Thing
The main catch-phrase in the SFAR is “alternative requirements,” which in plain English could be translated as wiggle room. Responding to extensive expressions of concern by stakeholders in a consultation process on the draft document that ended 14 months ago, the FAA has resolved to allow some latitude in compliance requirements, acceding to a performance-based approach in some instances.
This mainly applies to requirements for training and certifying the commercially licensed pilots who will fly the new eVTOL aircraft. They will have to earn a type rating for each “powered-lift” vehicle, but will there will be several alternate pathways to achieving this, including a workaround for those models that have a single set of flight controls. To establish an initial cadre of eVTOL flight instructors, pilots employed by manufacturers can accrue the necessary experience while helping their employers achieve type certification.
Whether the process will prove to be sufficiently user-friendly to support the recruitment and training of potentially thousands of new pilots needed to underpin the great AAM scale up in operations remains to be seen. Will pilots eschew the airlines or business aircraft operations for these roles? Well in some cases, they may well be employed by these companies, with operators such as Delta Air Lines and Bristow among the early prospective customers for eVTOLs.
Meanwhile, the FAA also allowed some latitude on energy reserve requirements. Instead of insisting on existing limits for fixed-wing aircraft—30 minutes of flying time to a suitable landing place for daytime flights, rising to 45 minutes at night—it is permitting eVTOLs to be treated as helicopters in this regard. That means an energy reserve requirement of just 20 minutes, as long as the powered-lift aircraft is “continuously capable of conducting a landing in the vertical-mode along the entire route of flight.”
The next task for reporters like me covering the AAM beat is to tune into the third-quarter financial results call for stock-market-listed companies like Joby and Archer to hear what they will tell their investors about the SFAR’s real-world implications.