The 1014 - Hutch Maiava
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted its first approval for a vertiport in the US, signaling progress towards the anticipated start of air taxi services in 2025. The vertiport, located at Virginia’s Allen C. Perkinson Blackstone Army Airfield, will be used for research and development of advanced air mobility (AAM) transportation operations.
This conditional approval from the FAA allows for the testing of AAM applications at the vertiport, which is expected to be the first of many similar projects in the coming years. The vertiport at KBKT will initially use smaller unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to replicate air taxis and other AAM aircraft while the facility is being developed and its technology is tested.
The development of the vertiport is a collaborative effort between the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), the NAVOS Air aerial navigation services company, and various research and development agencies. The VIPC states that leveraging existing approved infrastructure methods modified for new use cases will enable AAM operations sooner while also informing the development of future air traffic management systems and facilities.
