To accommodate the blooming advanced air mobility industry, the FAA needs to be flexible in applying existing regulations for conventional aircraft to new technologies, the agency’s executive director of Aircraft Certification Service, Lirio Liu, said on September 12 at the Revolution Aero conference in San Francisco. However, she did not specifically address industry concerns regarding the possible use of a "special class" under its 21.17 (b) regulations in place of the 14 CFR Part 23 rules used for most existing small fixed-wing aircraft.

A $15 million investment by United Airlines in Eve Air Mobility accompanies a conditional purchase agreement for 200 four-seat electric aircraft plus 200 options calling for first deliveries as early as 2026. The companies plan to study the development, use, and application of Eve’s eVTOL vehicle and the so-called urban air mobility ecosystem.

Electra has completed a fully integrated test of its hybrid-electric propulsion system for a nine-seat electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) demonstrator that is scheduled for first flight by the end of the year. Planning eventually to scale the system for larger aircraft, the company also wants to adapt its eSTOL vehicle for hydrogen and battery-electric power.

Beta Technologies is building a network of charging stations across the U.S. that it says can support existing electric cars and trucks as well as any new electric aircraft, including the five-passenger Alia 250 eVTOL that it plans to bring to market in 2025. The company has introduced a mobile app that will allow users to access potentially hundreds of multimodal recharging facilities at airports and other locations.

German eVTOL developer Volocopter has partnered with Aviation Safety and Quality Solutions (ASQS), an Austrian software company, to help it design and produce aircraft to certification standards. Under the partnership, Volocopter will implement ASQS’s integrated quality and safety management system (IQSMS) in all aspects of its business, including engineering, manufacturing, operations, and maintenance.

Airbus and Japanese helicopter operator Hiratagakuen are working together to create a simulation of ideal flight routes and a concept of operations for eVTOL air taxi services in the Kansai region. A demonstration flight is scheduled to take place there later this year.

VPorts, a Mirabel, Québec-based company founded in 2021 to develop AAM infrastructure, last week announced its plans to create the region’s first eVTOL vertiport network. Initially, VPorts will focus on regional cargo flights and the transportation of patients and medical supplies, including organs for transplants. 

French start-up VoltAero has made hundreds of flights with its hybrid-electric Cassio 1 technology demonstrator, and now it’s ready to start building prototypes for the first of a family of new aircraft. The company sees its family of aircraft being used for regional airline services and also private flights to carry between four and 10 passengers on trips of up to 800 miles, as founder Jean Botti explained to FutureFlight.

AMSL Aero is working to bring what would be Australia's first domestically-produced eVTOL aircraft to market. The start-up says it has built and flown some subscale technology demonstrators for the Vertiia design but has yet to publish a timeline for the program.