Advanced Air Mobility Uniformity Act (Amendments to Open Access to Vertiports Act)

Task Forces: Communications and Technology

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Summary

This policy defines urban aircraft transportation and requires states to begin planning infrastructure to accommodate such advances in the powered-lifted aircraft industry. The state’s department of transportation must educate infrastructural leadership on the abilities of powered-lift aircraft and create a uniform system across urban centers for their adoption. The state should limit regulation on such aircraft and promote the promulgation of such systems.

Model Policy

(See Amendments Here)

Section 1. Definitions. For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:
(a) “Advanced air mobility”: A transportation system that is comprised of urban air mobility and regional air mobility using manned or unmanned aircraft.
(b) “Regional air mobility”: The movement of passengers or property by air between two points using an airworthy aircraft that:

  1. has advanced technologies, such as distributed propulsion, vertical takeoff and landing, powered lift, nontraditional power systems, or autonomous technologies;
  2. has a maximum takeoff weight of greater than 1,320 pounds; and
  3. is not urban air mobility.

(c) “Urban air mobility”: The movement of passengers or property by air between two points in different cities or two points within the same city using an airworthy aircraft that:

  1. has advanced technologies, such as distributed propulsion, vertical takeoff and landing, powered lift, nontraditional power systems, or autonomous technologies; and
  2. has a maximum takeoff weight of greater than 1,320 pounds.

(d) “Powered-lift aircraft”: A heavier-than-air aircraft capable of vertical takeoff, vertical landing, and low-speed flight that depends principally on engine-driven lift devices or engine thrust for lift during these flight regimes and on nonrotating airfoil for lift during horizontal flight.
(e) “Vertiport”: An area of land, water, or a structure used or intended to be used to support the landing, takeoff, taxiing, parking, and storage of powered-lift aircraft or other aircraft that vertiport design and performance standards established by the Federal Aviation Administration can accommodate.


Section 2. Department of Transportation Advanced Air Mobility Planning.
The Department of Transportation shall do all of the following:
(a) Develop a statewide plan, or update the statewide aviation plan, to include vertiports, electric aviation charging, and any other infrastructure associated with advanced air mobility.
(b) Designate a subject-matter expert for advanced air mobility within the department as a resource for local and regional jurisdictions navigating advances in aviation technology.
(c) Lead a statewide education campaign for local and regional decisionmakers to educate them on the benefits of advanced air mobility.
(d) Provide local and regional jurisdictions with a guidebook and technical resources to support uniform planning and zoning language across the state related to advanced air mobility and associated infrastructure, including innovative financing and procurement of public-use facilities.
(e) Identify any legal and policy barriers to innovative financing and procurement of public-use vertiports, such as limitations on the use of public-private partnerships, and submit a report making findings and recommendations to the legislature within one year of enactment of this act.


Section 3. Statewide Uniformity.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a political subdivision of the state, or an entity within a political subdivision of the state, shall not enact a law, ordinance, or rule relating to advanced air mobility, the ownership of an advanced air mobility aircraft, or the aerial operation of an advanced air mobility aircraft.
(b) If the political subdivision or entity is an airport operator, it may enact a law, rule, or ordinance to govern either of the following:

  1. The operation of an advanced air mobility aircraft within the geographic boundaries of the airport over which the airport operator has authority.
  2. The takeoff or landing of an advanced air mobility aircraft at the airport over which the airport operator has authority.

(c) This section supersedes any law, ordinance, or rule enacted by a political subdivision prior to the enactment of this act.