The flying car industry will get a big boost this summer when the Federal Aviation Administration’s new pilot program takes off.
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The program will test Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Vehicles, or eVTOLs, which are essentially large drones with enough space to carry passengers or bulky goods. They can depart and land on existing helipads or purpose-built “vertiports,” which means they can operate in dense, built-up environments.
Industry players project the technology could be used for urban air taxi services, regional passenger transportation, and cargo and logistics transportation.
All of those uses will be explored in the pilot the FAA announced Monday in response to President Donald Trump’s June 2025 executive order titled Unleashing American Drone Dominance.
The FAA announced it tapped eight agencies across 26 states to carry out the program.
“These partnerships will help us better understand how to safely and efficiently integrate these aircraft into the National Airspace System,” FAA Deputy Administrator Chris Rocheleau said in a statement.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and transportation agencies in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and Louisiana have been tapped for the program. These eight agencies were selected from 30 applicants.
EVTOLs are already a hot topic in South Florida, where real estate developer and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross sees them as an innovative way to skirt the region’s intense auto traffic. His company Related Ross is plotting a new vertiport as part of its $10B transformation of West Palm Beach.
Archer Aviation, which is working on an effort to connect Miami, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale with 12 vertiports, was named in the FAA's announcement as a partner in Florida, Texas and the New York City metro area.
The company’s aircrafts, with space for four passengers, can reach 150 mph and travel between Miami and West Palm in just 30 minutes.
“This is the clearest sign yet from the White House, the FAA and the DOT that bringing air taxis to market in the United States is a real priority,” Archer CEO Adam Goldstein said in a statement.
Air taxi developer Joby Aviation was also named as a partner on several parts of the FAA program. The California-based company said it plans to scale production with facilities in Marina, California, and Dayton, Ohio, to meet growing demand.
“This is a defining moment for American innovation,” Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt said in a statement. “Instead of just reading about the future of flight, communities across America are going to be able to see it in the skies above their own cities this year.”
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