FAA releases vertiport standards for AAM aircraft
These Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) operations will transport passengers or cargo in rural, urban, and suburban locations at lower altitudes.
The FAA has announced new design requirements for vertiports and infrastructure that will enable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft. The design guidelines will be the first step in providing critical information to airport owners, operators, and infrastructure developers so that they may begin developing facilities to support the operations of AAM aircraft that are electrically driven and take off and land vertically.
"Our country is stepping into a new era of aviation. These vertiport design standards provide the foundation needed to begin safely building infrastructure in this new era," said Shannetta Griffin, P.E, Associate Administrator for Airports, FAA.
These Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) operations will transport passengers or cargo in rural, urban, and suburban locations at lower altitudes.
The design guidelines provide crucial information that designers and builders must adhere to in order to ensure safe takeoffs and landings. Some guidelines are as dimensions for vertiport touchdown and liftoff areas, additional airspace needed for approach and departure paths and load-bearing capacity. In the future FAA anticipates a high rate of operations at many vertiports. Guidelines on markings, lighting and visual aids that identify the facility as a vertiport. The FAA recommends the Vertiport Identification Symbol, as shown in the middle of the graphic below. Initial safety standards and guidelines for batteries and charging equipment that will be central to vertiports. Requirements for airports looking to add vertiports to an existing commercial airport, including the distance a vertiport would have to be from a current runway and requirements and guidelines for vertiports that may be on top of existing structures.
Until performance-based vertiport design guidance is created, this vertiport guidance will be utilised.
The final design requirements are based on FAA research, collaboration with industry partners, and public comment. On March 29, 2022, the FAA convened a virtual Industry Day to discuss the draft standards it issued in early 2022.
