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Beta Technologies and Joby Aviation are telling investors they expect revenue-generating flights to take place under the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), signaling the Federal Aviation Administration is closer to deciding how and when to approve commercial operations by novel electric aircraft in advance of type certification.
For-hire flights in experimental aircraft would be a striking departure from the FAA’s established regulatory framework, and the agency initially sent mixed messages about whether it would allow such operations at all. However, the FAA now agrees with industry that there is a legal pathway for approving them for advanced air mobility companies participating in the eIPP.
Publicly, the FAA has said that it expects only limited commercial operations in non-certificated aircraft under the eIPP, which encompasses electrical vertical take-off and landing as well as some fixed-wing aircraft. Behind the scenes, however, the agency has provided participants with high-level guidance outlining how to qualify for waivers enabling a variety of for-hire operations in experimental aircraft.
That guidance, reviewed by The Air Current, appears to have emboldened Beta and Joby, whose executives talked up the potential for near-term commercial operations on their third-quarter earnings calls this week.
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