EASA spearheads rulemaking for VTOL-capable operations and licensing

Europe’s air transport safety authority has laid out pioneering proposals for integrating operation of air taxis within cities, using innovative vertical take-off aircraft, with rules complementing those previously drawn up for unmanned aircraft systems. The proposals cover airworthiness and flight-crew licensing, as well as air operations, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has opened a public consultation which will run to the end of September. “With this, EASA becomes the first aviation regulator worldwide to release a comprehensive regulatory framework for operations of VTOL-capable aircraft, which will offer air taxi and similar services,” says executive director Patrick Ky. EASA has defined a concept of ‘innovative aerial services’ which encompasses the various operations enabled by new technologies, of which ‘innovative air mobility’ is a subset which, in turn, includes urban air mobility. It says analysis of existing regulations suggested a “lack” of adequate regulatory frameworks to maintain the necessary level of safety for certain operations, including those of manned designs capable of VTOL. New and amended regulations are necessary to enable urban air mobility implementation and “help build up [European citizens’] trust” regarding passenger VTOL aircraft operations, as well as those using unmanned vehicles, the EASA proposal states.<br/>