Sec. Duffy’s Paris Air Show UAM Partnership- what does working among 5 countries mean?
No mention of EASA, PRC, Brazil or Singapore!!!
Below is a through article about a Paris Air Show event—Secretary Duffy announced that the FAA has entered into a loose agreement with 4 other CAAs (US Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) to write a joint “roadmap” for type certificating electric air taxis. The presentation raised many substantive issues; the answers to which may dampen the Paris enthusiasm.
- What happened to the US/ FAA being considered the leader in TC? They were overrun by EASA, which has been more engaged with AAM TC. The FAA AAM Type Certification (TC) process is negotiated based on a number of Code of Federal Regulations—14 CFR Parts including 21, 23, 25 and 33. EASA has ALREADY prescribed regulatory requirements for AAM Type Certification. About the same time, the FAA announced a policy for powered lift for AAM aircraft. The parameters of that added time and requirements to US applicants.
- Why didn’t FAA and EASA harmonize and align on AAM requirements earlier when UAM/AAM was 1st being introduced?
- The partnership between the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and getting Type Certification process harmonized will result in more delay. Pentagonal negotiations will be slow!!!
- Will the EASA and FAA and the FAA’s 4 partner countries accept each other’s TC/data? There should be a requirement as a minimum.
- FAA TC resources are stretched with all the Boeing activity, and it has been a very long and costly journey for Joby and Archer – well past 5 years or more- so much so that the UAE’s CAA has elected to issue its own TC equivalent to Joby so they can meet their IOC date.
- China has the largest AAM market and no one is addressing the CAAC TC process – sooner or later EHANG and the Chinese company that purchased the Volocopter assets will want and need to ensure that their aircraft TC is accepted to enable worldwide sales. We may see CAA’s outside of EASA and the FAA/ new partners such as Singapore and Brazil follow the UAE model and proceed with their own TC.
USA and four nations roll out air taxi certification ‘roadmap’
By Jon Hemmerdinger17 June 2025
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy marked the second day of the show by revealing that the Federal Aviation Administration has partnered with regulators in four countries to write a joint “roadmap” for type certificating electric air taxis.
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Source: Billypix
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy on 17 June revealed a plan calling for regulators from the USA and four other countries to jointly develop air taxi certification standards
The air taxi certification roadmap, revealed by Duffy on 17 June, comes from THE USA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE UK – ALL MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL AVIATION AUTHORITIES NETWORK.
The document broadly says those partners will collaborate to establish standards and processes for certificating electric air taxis and other aircraft in the broader Urban Air Mobility (AAM) segment.
It does not include binding requirements. But it does signal the USA’s and its partners’ interest in supporting the segment and therefore could serve as a major lift to the air taxi segment.
“We have a roadmap to move forward with our partners, to have that common platform, which… is going to provide a bigger market share and faster deployment of new technology,” Duffy says.
Called “ROADMAP FOR ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY AIRCRAFT TYPE CERTIFICATION,” the document says the five regulators will collaborate to ensure safety, streamline certification processes, harmonise requirements across agencies, establish “performance-based” requirements and share data for the purpose of enabling “multi-authority validations”.
The regulators seek to complete their tasks by July 2027. The document says regulators will take a “crawl, walk, run approach for type certifying AAM aircraft” but does not estimate when initial type certifications might be issued.
Source: Billypix
But Federal Aviation Administration acting administrator Chris Rocheleau says US revenue air taxi flights could start as soon as 2026, while cautioning that such operations would “start very slow” and could first involve cargo flights.
“I think the companies have a really good game plan about how they roll this out… I’m encouraged at the progress we’re making,” Rocheleau says.
Several chief executives of US air taxi developers were on hand for Duffy’s announcement.
“It’s… great momentum,” says Wisk CEO Sebastien Vigneron. “It’s paving the way for the future.”
“This… is an incredible moment,” says Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein. “The companies came together, the regulators came together, the administration came together, and all as one.
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