PARIS—Aviation regulators from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are joining forces to unlock a new generation of advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft—including electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis and hydrogen-powered designs.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau unveiled the multinational agreement at the Paris Air Show, where they were joined by the CEOs of eVTOL manufacturers Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, Beta Technologies, and Wisk Aero. The companies’ aircraft are considered powered-lift—a category the FAA established in 2024.
Also attending was James Viola, CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), which has influenced the FAA’s blueprint for type certifying AAM models.
“If you ever wanted to see a bat signal go up into the air and say advanced air mobility is here, eVTOLs will be built, they will be certified and brought around the world—that’s today,” said Adam Goldstein, cofounder and CEO of Archer.
The goal of the collaboration is to align each nation’s AAM standards to facilitate speedy validation of the novel designs. It would allow the aforementioned American manufacturers, for example, to introduce their aircraft abroad without significant red tape.
“It’s a great moment,” said Sebastien Vigneron, CEO of Wisk. “I see it as our own Apollo moment, and it’s on us to turn it into reality.”
The FAA, Transport Canada, U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, and Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) signed a declaration of intent committing to a Roadmap for AAM Type Certification. The blueprint was developed by the five regulators, who comprise the National Aviation Authorities (NAA) network. They will share research, data, and safety information to align their standards. And according to the Department of Transportation, more countries will eventually join the effort.
“The principles will foster collaboration, promote technological innovation, and streamline the certification and validation process for these aircraft types across the world,” Rocheleau told reporters in Paris. “The challenges of certifying these aircraft are not unique, and that’s why we partnered with the five countries to ensure that this broad cooperation exists.”
The Roadmap
At its essence, the roadmap aims to give powered-lift and other AAM designs a clearer path to type certification. eVTOLs, for example, take off vertically like a helicopter but fly on fixed wings like a plane, making them difficult to place within traditional classifications.
That path could be identical across the five nations. The NAA members use existing regulations to validate each other’s aircraft—including the FAA’s 21.17(b) classification for special aircraft. The agency in 2022 established that standard as the pathway to AAM certification, with special airworthiness requirements depending on the model.
The American regulator in 2024 published a draft advisory circular outlining powered-lift type certification—as well as policy statements that would place certain eVTOL models in the rotorcraft category and apply to them the same safety continuum used to certify normal category aircraft. While not final, these moves elucidate the FAA’s plans.
Per the roadmap, CASA and Transport Canada will certify AAM models using equivalents to 21.17(b). They will draw from FAA-published airworthiness criteria and could create more for aircraft with unique requirements. New Zealand’s CAA, meanwhile, has enough regulatory flexibility to accept airworthiness design standards on a case-by-case basis.
“Mother Nature is universal across the entire world,” said Beta founder and CEO Kyle Clark. “Safety is a product of the physics that are applied to these devices, and it should be harmonized.”
The U.K., though, could pose a challenge. Its CAA has adopted the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) special condition for VTOL, which uses aircraft design to chart regulations. The FAA, by contrast, proposes performance-based standards—creating guidelines based on operations rather than design.
“NAA network coordination and alignment with the U.K. CAA on common airworthiness standards is critical, considering the differences that currently exist between SC-VTOL and the airworthiness criteria” laid out by the FAA, it argues.
The roadmap proposes that all regulators go the latter route. If all five can get on the same page, they could establish bilateral agreements that include AAM in addition to conventional models. They could further develop a mutually accepted means of compliance for validation across the NAA network.
“We have unprecedented amounts of demand for the products that we’re building all around the world, and this leadership is the foundation for us to be able to bring this to the world,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby.
According to its architects, the roadmap is “considered a living document” and will be updated as the regulators progress toward type certification and harmonize their differences.
President Donald Trump earlier this month announced an executive order that could accelerate the effort. It calls for the creation of an eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) that would evaluate five projects over three years. That research could help the FAA—and by extension, other regulators—set the stage for AAM. Goldstein told FLYING that Archer and its competitors have held early discussions with Duffy and Rocheleau about participating in the program.