Up, Up, and Away: Innovations in Advanced Air Mobility

A New U.S. DOT Volpe Center-FAA Thought Leadership Series

Today, we are on the cusp of a new era in aviation.

Drones, electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and other kinds of innovations have the potential to help us tackle some of our most difficult challenges and achieve major breakthroughs that will lead us to a new aviation system ecosystem. We must consider how to move quickly to embrace new technologies while ensuring that the aviation system of the future is safer, more efficient, equitable, and sustainable.

In August 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in coordination with the National Security Council, hosted the first ever White House Summit on Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) as part of its commitment to ensuring that the U.S. remains the global leader in aviation and other emerging technologies. 

On October 17, 2022, the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act (Public Law 117- 53, Section 516) was signed into law by President Biden. The law creates a new leadership role for the U.S. DOT and, among other things, mandates the establishment of a new AAM interagency working group and development of a national strategy for AAM. Carlos Monje, Undersecretary of Transportation for Policy, is leading development of the strategy in coordination with FAA and agencies across government. In addition, the Drone Advisory Committee has been recast as the Advanced Aviation Advisory Committee. It is a broad-based federal advisory committee that provides independent advice and recommendations to the FAA on key unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and AAM integration issues, interests, and policies.

The U.S. DOT Volpe Center has a long tradition of facilitating knowledge exchange across the transportation community and bringing together our experts, our sponsors and other government officials, prominent academics, and forward-thinking industry and non-profit leaders to discuss fresh approaches to emerging transportation challenges. And FAA and the U.S. DOT Volpe Center and other key stakeholders have been federal partners in laying the foundation for the aviation system of the future for more than 50 years.

In late fall 2023 through February 2024, FAA and the U.S. DOT Volpe Center, in coordination with the Office of the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, will collaborate on a new thought leadership series focused on AAM. This series furthers our partnership for the public good.

This series will be moderated by U.S. DOT Volpe Center Director Anne D. Aylward. 

Key series themes are consistent with U.S. DOT strategic goals and objectives: 

• Safety: Safe integration of new technologies into our National Airspace System is imperative as innovators create new AAM aircraft for use in emergency response and delivery of cargo, packages, and even passengers.
• Transformation: AAM is a game changer. As we design and prepare for the future, we need to invest in purpose-driven research and innovation that serves the public in the coming decades.
• Economic Strength and Global Competitiveness: Growth and future markets for AAM bring new opportunities for passenger and freight transportation and require AAM infrastructure. It is important to understand the potential cost impacts and future levels of demand for advanced regional and urban aviation.
• Environmentally Responsible Integration: It is essential that we accurately account for the potential environmental effects of new AAM vehicles.
• Equity: AAM provides another opportunity to reduce inequities across our transportation systems and the communities that they affect. It is important to engage people and communities on AAM while working to reduce transportation-related disparities, adverse community impacts, and health effects.
• International Collaboration: Close collaboration with our international partners is critical to successfully and safely integrate these new technologies.
• Workforce: If AAM products launch on the intended scale, jobs will be created including pilots, technicians, engineers, software engineers, and dispatchers.

The U.S. DOT Volpe Center and FAA are committed to principles of accessibility and inclusion. If you require reasonable accommodations, please contact collateral duty Disability Program Specialist Stephanie Chase and carbon copy EEO Manager Eliot Sutler on your request.  

Speaker Lineup

Series Kickoff: Innovations in Advanced Air Mobility

Carlos Monje, Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, U.S. DOT 

Katie Thomson, Deputy Administrator, FAA 

Robert Hampshire, PhD, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer, U.S. DOT 

Laurence Wildgoose, Assistant Administrator for Policy, International Affairs, and Environment, FAA

Elan Head, Senior Editor, The Air Current 

​​ 30 November 2023

​​1:00 p.m. ET

​​Online

Safety and Advanced Air Mobility

Derek Morgan, Chief Operations Manager, Aircraft Certification, Aviation Safety, FAA

Cindy Comer, Director, Certification and Safety Management System, Wisk 

Eric Allison, Head of Product, Joby Aviation 

Blain Newton, Chief Operating Officer, BETA Technologies

 7 December 2023

1:00 p.m. ET

Online

Transformation: Urban Air Mobility Concept of Operations

Paul Fontaine, Assistant Administrator for NextGen, FAA

Robert Pearce, Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), NASA 

 19 December 2023

1:00 p.m. ET

Online

Environmentally Responsible Advanced Air Mobility

Julie Marks, Acting Executive Director, Office Environment and Energy, FAA  

Stephen Rizzi, PhD, Senior Researcher for Aeroacoustics, NASA Langley Research Center 

Christopher Roof, Chief, Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division, U.S. DOT Volpe Center 

 17 January 2024

1:00 p.m. ET

Online

Considerations for Equity in Advanced Air Mobility

Yolanka Wulff, Executive Director and Co-founder, Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI); Member, FAA AAM Advisory Committee 

Okeoma Moronu, Legal Counsel, Zipline 

 23 January 2024

1:00 p.m. ET

Online

International Collaboration in Advanced Air Mobility

Annie Petsonk, Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs, U.S. DOT 

Lirio Liu, Executive Director, Aircraft Certification Service, FAA

India Pinkney, Executive Director, Office of International Affairs, FAA 

 6 February 2024

1:00 p.m. ET

Online

Series Finale: The Advanced Air Mobility Workforce of the Future

Laurence Wildgoose, Assistant Administrator for Policy, International Affairs, and Environment, FAA  

Robin Reidel, Partner, Aerospace and Defense, Travel, Transportation and Logistics, and Sustainability, McKinsey Center for Future Mobility  

Becky Lutte, PhD, Chair of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University College of Aviation Worldwide 

 15 February 2024

1:00 p.m. ET

Online

*The views of the speakers may not represent the views of U.S. DOT.