Advanced Air Mobility in 2026: From Exemptions to Execution

Every time I get on an airplane, I think about my four children. How can we make this faster? How can we make it safer? What will travel look like when they are adults? That question is personal for me, but it is also the driving force behind the work we are doing at Honeywell Aerospace in advanced air mobility. This isn’t just about flying cars for the ultra-wealthy, it’s a new way of moving people and parcels that will positively impact the way we live and work.

I will be the first to admit: for the last six or seven years, people in this industry have been saying we are only “two or three years away.” I am going to say the same thing today. But I feel more confident saying it now than I did two or three years ago because, for the first time, there is a clear and structured path to get there, and we are seeing it happen firsthand.

Since Honeywell Aerospace stood up its advanced air mobility (AAM) business in 2020, we have watched aircraft go from paper designs to sub-scale prototypes to full-scale vehicles in active flight testing. Multiple programs are now deep into a structured FAA certification plan. At least one manufacturer is expected to reach Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) this year: the milestone where the FAA comes on board with its own pilot and begins flying the aircraft for credit. That is not a projection. That is where the industry stands right now.

The regulatory picture has shifted just as significantly. In December 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation released its Advanced Air Mobility National Strategy, a 10-year framework coordinated across 25 federal agencies. It maps a specific timeline: demonstrations and initial operations by 2027, expanded urban and rural missions by 2030, incrementally autonomous flights by 2035. The FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) will designate five U.S. locations as operational test beds this year, giving mature aircraft designs a way to demonstrate real-world missions ahead of full type certification.

This is what execution looks like. Not a single breakthrough moment, but an entire ecosystem maturing in parallel: regulation, certification, infrastructure, manufacturing and public acceptance all advancing together. Honeywell Aerospace has had a front seat for this journey, and we intend to keep it.

From Exemptions to Rules-Based Execution

If you had asked me three years ago what the biggest obstacle to AAM was, I would have said regulatory clarity. Not because the FAA was not engaged, but because the volume of work was unprecedented. The number of manufacturers seeking certification was two to three times what the FAA would typically see in a given year, and much of the early progress depended on one-off exemptions and waivers rather than repeatable rules.

That picture has changed. The FAA Reauthorization Act established funding and priorities. Executive orders have created momentum. And the administration, from the Secretary of Transportation to the FAA Administrator, has put advanced air mobility on the national agenda. We are moving from ad hoc approvals to a coordinated, interagency framework that aligns FAA certification, infrastructure planning and operations under a single strategy.

The FAA also created something that did not exist a few years ago: the powered-lift category. It combined fixed-wing and rotorcraft rules, essentially saying these eVTOL aircraft will do both, so they need to meet the requirements of both. That was a significant pivot for everyone already in this space. But a defined path, even a demanding one, is better than ambiguity.

The FAA's Innovate28 implementation plan and the eIPP program are the next chapters, building toward a system where compliance is predictable and scalable.

Why Safety Leads Adoption

At Honeywell Aerospace, safety is central to our mission. That is not something we take lightly. We design products knowing they fly on aircraft that could be carrying our family members or flying over our homes. We intend to continue the tradition of aviation being the safest method of transportation.

Safety is not a box you check once. Every flight matters as much as the last one. And the stakes are collective: the one thing that keeps leaders across this industry up at night is the possibility of an early incident. If Company A has a problem, whether with an air taxi or a delivery drone, the whole industry gets set back. That is why safety has to be at a premium.

Since aviation is global, safety expectations must be consistent. Right now, the FAA and Europe’s EASA have different certification standards for eVTOL aircraft. EASA’s SC-VTOL framework requires a safety case to 10^-9, the most stringent threshold ever applied to an air vehicle. At Honeywell Aerospace, we have the ability to certify to the highest applicable global standard regardless of jurisdiction, because harmonization is coming and designing to one standard now is simpler than additional development later.

Shared Skies Demand More Than Shared Rules

There was a time when some in this industry believed AAM aircraft should fly in segregated airspace. We have moved past that. Crewed aircraft, uncrewed systems, cargo drones and air taxis need to and will share the same sky. That is the right foundation, but it raises the stakes for coordination, situational awareness and technology.

The strain is already visible: Newark going dark. Go-arounds on crowded final approaches to busy runways and taxiways. ATC systems still running technology from the floppy disk era. We will do better with what is available today, because it is only going to get more crowded. ATC modernization is underway, and it has to keep pace with the new vehicles entering the airspace.

Public engagement matters just as much. Congressman Garrett Graves told the audience at Honeywell Aerospace’s AAM Summit in 2024: “Go home and talk to your neighbor who has no idea what you are talking about. If you do not educate them, they will create their own narratives, and those artificial narratives will not be beneficial.” We saw that play out at the 2024 Paris Olympics where community opposition, regulatory approvals, lack of development progress and certification delays reduced Volocopter's planned network of vertiport locations and commercial routes to a brief demonstration flight with no passengers on board. On the opposite end of the spectrum,, a drone delivery company in Ireland took the opposite approach: going to schools, coffee shops and community meetings as part of a grassroots education blitz before they ever entered a new market. That is the model.

In our AAM echo chamber, everyone is giving high fives. But we are a niche fraction of a percent of the public. Demonstrating value, not just capability, is what earns the right to operate.

Beyond the Aircraft: Ecosystem Readiness

We use the word “ecosystem” constantly in this industry because getting a single aircraft certified is not the whole picture. Is the infrastructure there? Not fully. But on day one, airport-to-airport missions and existing heliports can work. Can the industry manufacture at scale? Not yet, but production lines are being built.

 Five years ago, the estimate to take an eVTOL through development and FAA certification was about a billion dollars. Now it is closer to three billion, and that meter is still running because nobody has crossed the finish line yet. Building a certified aircraft is one challenge. Producing it repeatedly, affordably and at aerospace-grade quality is the one that will determine scale.

The most exciting part about operations to me is the use cases that we have not yet imagined. At the Port of Rotterdam, tankers wait days for oil samples to be analyzed before docking. A drone could do it in minutes. Workers on offshore wind farms want drones to move tools up and down so they aren’t needlessly climbing. In Arizona, drones can change how forest fires are monitored and fought, protecting hotshots’ lives when conditions can rapidly change. Beta Technologies has explored organ transplant delivery, where traffic could mean the difference between life and death. 

We didn’t originally think the smartphone would become your radio, your news source and your banking app. These vehicles will not just be air taxis. Look around at how business is conducted today and envision bringing this new tool to the table – there is probably something coming that none of us have even thought about.

Honeywell Aerospace: The Eyes, Brain and Muscles

If an aircraft is the body, Honeywell Aerospace builds the eyes, the brain and the muscles –critical systems that make it all work: avionics, flight controls, actuation, thermal management and satellite communications hardware and software. Honeywell Aerospace can provide nose-to-tail offerings that include everything, save the seats and the fuselage.. At our Deer Valley AAM Lab in Phoenix, we integrate and demonstrate these systems every day.

But our role extends beyond hardware. We consider ourselves the adults in the room. We have certified countless aerospace products and we know what it takes. We help drive policy through our government relations team. We connect manufacturers with global regulatory bodies. When all factors are considered, reliability and the confidence that we can execute on our commitments is the most important consideration when certification and operation are on the line.

Thoughts About the Future of the Industry

I started by talking about my children. I want to come back to that, because it is the reason I do this work. When they are my age, the way people move through the world will look fundamentally different. You will not have to live within the same radius of where you work. Underserved communities that receive cargo deliveries every few days will be connected daily. These are not niche outcomes for the privileged few. If value is only created for a small segment of the population, we will never get the scale necessary to run a business. The greater good is the business case.

But none of that happens if we do not earn it. Our say needs to match our do. Industry estimates suggest AAM could generate over 100,000 new jobs by 2040. The people who will build, operate and maintain these aircraft are in school right now. We think advanced air mobility can help address the pilot shortage by creating new pathways into aviation.

Every time I get on an airplane, I think about my four children. I think about what is possible and what we owe the people who will live with the decisions we are making right now. At Honeywell Aerospace, we are not watching from the sidelines. We are helping to build the systems, set the standards and close the gap between what this industry promises and what it delivers. That is what execution looks like. And that is the only version of this story worth telling.