While continuing a transition with changeover in leadership and new U.S. administration, the FAA is prioritizing activities surrounding advanced air mobility (AAM), drones, and rulemaking that may enable future technologies, including eVTOL aircraft, according to acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau.
In an interview with AIN, Rocheleau conceded that “With any presidential transition and new team—and I’m part of that new team—we’re going to want to take a look at where we are…There's always a process by which people need to go through that.”
However, he stressed that despite this process, the agency is working to ensure that bureaucracy is not used to slow things down on rulemaking and other initiatives that could advance new technologies or other safety initiatives. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy “is particularly attuned to this,” Rocheleau said. “Where we identify technologies that are safe, efficient, or whatever that benefit is, let's move out quickly.”
This includes the much-anticipated proposal on beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) that was facing a congressional mandate of release late last year. Rocheleau said the BVLOS rulemaking is “getting close to completion. It's sooner than ‘shortly,’” he said. “I've heard shortly now for a little while, and I think that we're getting really close. We've talked to the administration about the importance of the enabling nature of this rule.”
Rocheleau, who rejoined the FAA in January after serving as COO for NBAA, noted the ongoing dialogue about wanting less regulation in government. But he added, “Where we have a rule that is enabling to industry and where it helps—whether it's airports, advanced air mobility, drones—the administration has come out pretty clearly and said we want to let these rules go. Enabling rules like BVLOS are a priority, 100%.”
In May, the acting administrator is going to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to explore the uncrewed aircraft system traffic management (UTM) technology in place. This past July, the FAA announced the first authorizations for commercial drone operations using the UTM technology. “To me, those are game changers when we think about the beyond visual line of sight rule and enabling drones to do deliveries.”
Discussions with AAM Frontrunners
On AAM, Rocheleau conceded that there has been some restructuring of the FAA. “My goal is to kind of inject new energy, new focus in that area,' he maintained. "The secretary and I have met with a couple of the companies that are leaders in advanced air mobility, and we want to make sure that we're bringing that into the system in a safe manner.”
Rocheleau pointed to the special federal aviation regulation that was released last year that would enable AAM operations and approvals. “I think part of our goal this year is to make sure that we're utilizing pilot programs or test cases where we bring some of those aircraft in the sky safely,” he said. “Having been part of the NBAA roundtable where we talked a lot with the agency about that, there's a real interest from not just the manufacturers and the operators of these aircraft, but the agency itself.”
As far as the operation of AAM vehicles, Rocheleau said there are about a handful of AAM companies working toward that goal. “We are moving down that in a smart, safe, but very focused way.” The goal is to be able to get to make sure that as the operators are ready to go, they can fly into airspace not just designated for testing, but actual corridors.
“That’s what I really want to enable this year,” he said. Noting he plans to return to the deputy administrator role once Congress confirms a new FAA Administrator (the White House has nominated Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford for the position), Rocheleau added: “I think the new administrator will come in at some point, ideally, but I’ve let the leadership team here know we're not stopping and waiting for anything, whether that's on the workforce hiring, whether that’s on modernizing the agency, or whether that's bringing in new technologies into the airspace.”