FAA’s 26-state pilot program sets stage for first U.S. commercial operations late 2026

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy became the first holder of his office to fly in a next-generation eVTOL aircraft, taking Beta Technologies’ Alia aloft at the company’s Burlington, Vermont headquarters on May 29. The flight coincided with the unveiling of the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) – eight projects spanning 26 states that will test air-taxi, regional passenger and cargo/medical applications with pre-certified aircraft. Beta was selected for seven of the eight projects, more than any other manufacturer.

That timeline is ambitious, however. None of the required Other Transaction Authority agreements had been signed as of June, each signature starts a 90-day clock before operations can begin pointing to late 2026 as the realistic start.

The two U.S. certification frontrunners are converging on the same window. Joby Aviation has entered the final phase of FAA type certification, flying its first fully FAA-conforming aircraft since March 2026 ahead of for-credit Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) testing with FAA pilots at its Marina, California facility later this year. Commercial passenger service with Delta Air Lines, targeted for late 2026, is planned for New York and Los Angeles at fares of $150–300 per trip.

レアアース市場月報

酸化物、金属、NdFeBの価格評価、市場分析、およびデータ

 

アダマスの価格評価

Archer Aviation, the first eVTOL developer to win FAA acceptance of 100% of its 797 Means of Compliance for Midnight, closed Phase 3 of the four-phase process in April and is now in Phase 4 for-credit testing. The company targets initial U.S. commercial flights in the second half of 2026 under the eIPP. Its order book exceeds $3 billion across United Airlines, Korean Air, Japan Airlines and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Vertical Aerospace’s third and final full-scale prototype completed its maiden piloted flight at Cotswold Airport on June 5^th under a new UK CAA Permit to Fly. The flight doubles the company’s flight-test capacity ahead of Critical Design Review later this year and a 2028 entry-into-service target for the four-passenger Valo.

In China, EHang – operator of the world’s only certified autonomous passenger eVTOL – reported first-quarter revenue of RMB25.7 million ($3.7 million) on four EH216-S deliveries, down from 66 aircraft in the fourth quarter, but maintained full-year guidance of roughly RMB600 million ($84 million) on a heavily H2-weighted delivery schedule. Its two Chinese operator-certificate holders have logged more than 3,000 zero-accident commercial passenger flights since March 2025, and the company debuted pilotless flights in Mexico, its first Latin American showcase.

アダマスの見解：

A Transportation Secretary in the cabin, an FAA pilot program targeting revenue operations, and two OEMs in the final certification phase compress the timeline from the perpetual 2-3-years-away to first U.S. paying flights potentially within months: on the FAA’s own target.

According to our forecasts, advanced air mobility NdFeB demand compounds at 16% through 2040 – second only to robotics’ 28% among the outlook’s fastest-growing end-uses – and together with robotics and e-mobility drives nearly 60% of all magnet demand growth to 2040 (Rare Earth Magnet Market Outlook to 2040 report).

These are multi-motor PM-propulsion aircraft (twelve rotors on Archer’s Midnight, six of them tilting, eight on Vertical’s Valo, sixteen on EHang’s EH216-S ) carrying a magnet loading per airframe that is a multiple of an EV traction motor’s and skewed toward Dy/Tb-grade material given the thermal demands of high-power-density propulsion.

Archer’s $3 billion-plus order book and EHang’s H2-weighted delivery ramp are the first evidence of aircraft moving from test cards to production rates. Joby’s type certification and the start of eIPP revenue flights in H2 2026 are expected to act as key triggers for production scaling and, possibly, the first dedicated eVTOL magnet supply commitments.

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