By Dronelife Features Editor Jim Magill

Although the future of jet-propelled cars whizzing across the sky, as portrayed in The Jetsons, is still some time in the future, the era of flying taxis and other next generation aerial vehicles moved a little bit closer with the launch, by the federal Department of Transportation and the FAA, of the new eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP).

In a March 9 announcement the federal agencies said they had selected eight proposed research projects across the U.S. to serve as proving grounds for the testing and development of crewed and uncrewed eVTOL aircraft and other forms Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technologies. The program is designed to accelerate the safe deployment of AAM vehicles into the National Airspace System.

The eight selected projects will span 26 states and involve AAM aircraft manufacturers and operators, and state agency partners. The agencies and their corporate partners include: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in partnership with Archer Aviation, BETA Technologies, Electra and Joby Aviation; the Texas Department of Transportation with Archer, BETA, Joby and Wisk Aero; the Utah Department of Transportation, with Ampaire, BETA, Joby and others.

Also included in the program are: the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation with BETA, Electra and others; the state of Louisiana with BETA, Elroy Air, and others; the Florida Department of Transportation Archer, BETA, Electra, Joby and others; the North Carolina Department of Transportation, with BETA, Joby and others; and the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in partnership with Reliable Robotics.

“The FAA eIPP is structured in order to accelerate adoption for advanced technologies in aviation,” Kevin Noertker, CEO and co-founder at AAM equipment manufacturer Ampaire, said in an interview with DroneLife. “It’s a fast track for both the innovators and the operators and ecosystem stakeholders in order to understand the true facts of deployment more rapidly than the traditional regulatory structure would allow for.

Program Makes Room for Non eVTOL Technologies

Although not technically an eVTOL manufacturer, Los Angeles-based Ampaire, which specializes in the development of hybrid-electric propulsion systems for regional air travel, is considered as an AAM-related company for purposes of the federal program.

Over the past decade, Ampaire has been developing hybrid electric systems to significantly increase fuel efficiency in small piloted aircraft. Recent testing on aircraft equipped with the company’s hybrid system in the company’s home state of California recorded average fuel savings of 54% which includes the self-charging of the vehicle, Noertker said.

“This type of dramatic fuel savings is beneficial for many of the essential services out there – passengers, cargo, other logistics, medical, defense — and it aligns exactly with the types of operations the FAA is looking to accelerate under the program,” he said.

Under the auspices of the Utah Department of Transportation, Ampaire will fly a Cesta 208 B Grand Caravan aircraft upgraded with its hybrid-electric technology in four western U.S. states spanning the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains and the plains of Oklahoma will test a wide range of operational concepts for next-generation aircraft.

“Ampaire’s approach to this program is a series of test flights that have increasing relevance to real-world operations, ultimately resulting in real-world operations,” Noertker said.

For example, to test the efficiency of the hybrid aircraft system in operating cargo operations, Ampaire will conduct a series of test flights comparing the performance of the hybrid-fueled aircraft with a similar plane powered by a conventional engine.

“What we would initially do is we would take Ampaire’s flight test aircraft, which is in market-survey category with the FAA, and we would run those routes in parallel to the existing daily operations of those airline fleets. So, this looks like matching apples to apples operationally,” he said. 

“From there, having proven out that information and built some familiarity with the operators, the pilots and so on, we would then run surrogate routes. So instead of running in parallel, we would actually –and this is contingent on FAA approval — fly those routes with the Ampaire operator payload.”

Under the eIPP program, Ampaire, like the other private companies involved, hopes to have its technology certified by the FAA for commercial operations, outside of the normal, lengthy certification approval process. “That’s the stepwise approach that we’re taking,” he said.

AAM Operators Look Forward to Commercialization

Other companies taking part in the program see their participation as a stepping stone towards the certification and commercial application of their respective AAM technologies.

Autonomous aircraft system developer Elroy Air, which along with customer and long-time partner Bristow Group, was selected as part of the state of Louisiana’s application, plans to fly its Chaparral, a hybrid-electric VTOL drone under the eIPP program. 

Elroy Air will deploy the Chaparral, which is capable of carrying 300 pounds of cargo up to 300 miles, delivering cargo to destinations across the Gulf Coast and to energy industry locations throughout Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. The company hopes that these operations, expected to start later this year, will accelerate the path that will lead to FAA approval to deploy the Chaparral’s autonomous capabilities in high-demand offshore and industrial environments.

“Chaparral was selected to define the federal standard for uncrewed heavy-payload logistics. That doesn’t happen without a truly mission-ready aircraft and a team that’s been doing this work for years,” Elroy Air CEO Andrew Clare said in a press statement.

Archer, a developer of piloted electric air taxis, in association with the transportation departments of Texas and Florida and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, plans to establish local operating teams, infrastructure and procedures to ensure safe, deployment of its AAM technology. The company will conduct tests using its Midnight piloted air taxi, which is designed to carry up to four passengers.

The eIPP program “is the clearest sign yet from the White House, the FAA and the DOT that bringing air taxis to market in the United States is a real priority,” Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein, said in a statement.

In a separate press release, Joby Aviation, another electric air taxi developer, said its participation in the eIPP program would enable the company “to begin early operations this year in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah.”

“This is a defining moment for American innovation,” said Joby Founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “Instead of just reading about the future of flight, communities across America are going to be able to see it in the skies above their own cities this year.”

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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.