• 29 Oct 2024 01:55 AM
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Washington Report, Nov/Dec 2024

FAA Grants $291M for Sustainable Flight Projects

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Aug. 16 disclosed grants for 36 projects as part of a $291M federal subsidy for sustainable aviation programs. The FAA’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) program granted companies the subsidies, which are federally funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, to improve transportation infrastructure through programs including zero-emission aircraft or low-emission flight.

Whereas the bulk of the money ($245M) went into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) developments, FlightGlobal reported that single-digit-million-dollar grants went to Boeing, Heart Aerospace (which has a growing US presence), Honeywell, JetZero, magniX, Otto Aviation, Wright Electric and ZeroAvia for “low-emission aviation technologies” totaling $47M.

FAA Vertiport Design Guidelines Advance

On Sept. 20, the FAA released a draft to the first revision of Engineering Brief (EB) No. 105, Vertiport Design, seeking public comment on the update as the agency aims to enable the development of advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure, including landing areas for electric and hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The original EB 105 was published in September 2022, with VFS and Vertical Aviation International (VAI) partnering to provide detailed feedback.

The FAA stated, “Principal changes include adjustments to the sizing of vertiport geometry, information about aircraft parking, and the creation of a protection area to address aircraft downwash and outwash.” However, industry was concerned about the divergence from the existing Heliport Design Advisory Circular (AC), AC 150/5390-2D, which was just updated in January 2023.

Some of the language suggested that a heliport would have to be converted to a vertiport before eVTOL aircraft could operate there, but it wasn’t clear if helicopters could then operate from a vertiport. An obvious counter argument is that an operator, such as a hospital, wouldn’t want to require a heliport, a droneport and a vertiport, but a single takeoff and landing area that could support all vertical flight operations.

Another point of contention is the FAA’s current requirement for the final approach and takeoff (FATO) area to be load bearing, for both the static load (maximum takeoff weight) and the dynamic load (150% of maximum takeoff weight) of the design aircraft, regardless of whether the FATO is ground based or elevated. This increased size would significantly impact site feasibility and costs, but industry and other stakeholders did not feel that the FAA provided sufficient justification.

The Vertical Flight Society submitted comments compiled by VFS Infrastructure Advisor Rex Alexander of Five-Alpha, LLC. In addition, the Society collaborated with several other organizations on this effort and signed onto a joint association letter with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), National Air Transportation Association (NATA) and National Business Aviation Association (NBAA).

There was broad consensus that the FAA’s proposed design standards for vertiports should be consistent and harmonized with current heliport standards to the extent possible. A key argument is that VTOL aircraft will be required to demonstrate equivalent performance to helicopters, per the 21.17(b) and the published airworthiness standards for powered-lift aircraft.

Commenters maintained that if equivalent performance from type certified designs will be required, there should be no reason for the FAA to establish a new, differentiated standard. There was strong consensus across the industry — which is also now a stated goal of the FAA — for the engineering brief to simply supplement the existing heliport design advisory circular and establish that vertiports are heliports.

In addition to extensive response by these associations, many other organizations also submitted comments to meet the Oct. 18 deadline, which was only 28 days after the notice for comment was first published in the federal registry. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 specified that the FAA was required to publish the final version of EB 105A by the end of calendar year 2024. Given the hundreds of comments submitted, the agency is under a serious time crunch to meet that deadline.

Congress also specified that the FAA must publish a vertiport design AC by the end of 2025. The broad consensus from the associations, infrastructure developers and vertical flight aircraft operators was that the future Vertiport AC should be combined directly into a revised Heliport Design AC, thereby bypassing the need for a separate Vertiport AC that will ultimately be merged into the Heliport AC in due course. This, in the eyes of industry, would save time, effort and money in the long run but may require Congress to extend the deadline for this work into 2026.

Since 2019, VFS has held a series of eight in-depth workshops dedicated to vertical flight and AAM infrastructure (see “AAM Infrastructure Workshop 2024,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2024) to help inform stakeholders in industry, government and academia of the needs and challenges for AAM infrastructure. As of September 2024, VFS has also chartered a select AAM Vertical Flight Infrastructure Focus Group, led by Rex Alexander, to continue supporting the FAA’s efforts to develop consensus-based infrastructure standards for vertical flight aircraft.

FAA Publishes Rules on Powered-Lift Operations and Training

The FAA published regulations on Oct. 22 that outline pilot certification and operations for “powered-lift” aircraft (aka, winged eVTOL aircraft) that are poised to be “the first completely new category of civil aircraft since helicopters were introduced in the 1940s,” the agency said.

“This historic rule will pave the way for accommodating widescale Advanced Air Mobility operations in the future,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker announced.

The final rule, “Integration of Powered-Lift: Pilot Certification and Operations; Miscellaneous Amendments Related to Rotorcraft and Airplanes,” included permanent amendments to FAA regulations and also established a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) for 10 years “to facilitate the certification of powered-lift pilots, clarify operating rules applicable to operations involving a powered lift [aircraft], and finalize other amendments which are necessary to integrate powered-lift.” The affected sections of Title 14 of the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) are Parts 1, 11, 43, 60, 61, 91, 97, 111, 135, 136, 141, 142 and 194.

The final rule and supporting documents were posted on the FAA website after a keynote presentation by Whitaker at the annual NBAA Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (BACE), followed by a press conference and a signing ceremony with leaders from the FAA, the bipartisan AAM Congressional Caucus, leading eVTOL companies and others.

As of press time, industry, associations and other stakeholders were reviewing the 880-page final rule and working to come to a common understanding of the final rule and how to implement it.

The FAA released the draft SFAR in June 2023. VFS submitted comments by the deadline two months later and signed onto a broad industry consensus letter by AIA, NATA, NBAA, Vertical Aviation International (VAI) and the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). There was near unanimity of opinion that the SFAR had some serious deficiencies, including areas that could have smothered the nascent AAM industry (see “Industry Vets FAA’s Powered-Lift SFAR,” Vertiflite, Sept/Oct 2023).

Responding to the comments received on the draft SFAR, the FAA stated that the final rule “provides clarification for certain operating rules and adopts a performance-based approach to certain operating rules.”

The four areas of greatest concern for VFS in the draft SFAR pertained to pilot certification that deviated from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards; requiring the development and certification of dualcontrol, powered-lift trainers; impractical requirements for preexisting, high-fidelity simulators; and airplane-like fuel reserves.

The final rule allows pilots to train how to operate poweredlift aircraft with a single set of flight controls, instead of two flight controls required for other aircraft to enable access for both instructors and students. It provides a more flexible approach to simulator training and allows helicopter-like fuel reserves if the powered-lift aircraft is able to conduct a vertical landing along the entire flight route.

More information about the draft SFAR comments and the final rule can be found at www.vtol.org/sfar.