Advanced Air Mobility (AAM): Definition, Aircraft Types and Regulation

Short answer

Advanced air mobility (AAM) is a transportation system that moves people and property by air between two points in the United States using aircraft with advanced technologies, including electric aircraft and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, in both controlled and uncontrolled airspace. That is the wording of U.S. Public Law 117-203, enacted in October 2022. In practice AAM means mostly electric, vertical-lift aircraft flying short regional trips of about 10 to 150 miles, carrying a few passengers or small cargo loads.

Definition and scope

The statutory definition sits in section 2(i)(1) of the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act (Public Law 117-203, 136 Stat. 2227). It defines AAM as a transportation system, not as a single aircraft type: the system includes the aircraft, the routes, the airspace rules and the ground infrastructure around them. The same section defines two supporting terms that matter for how the field is bounded:

• Electric aircraft: an aircraft with a fully electric or hybrid (fuel and electric) driven propulsion system used for flight.
• Vertical take-off and landing: an aircraft with lift/thrust units used to generate powered lift and control, with two or more lift/thrust units providing lift during vertical take-off or landing.

Two features of the definition are easy to miss. First, it covers “people and property”, so cargo and public-service flights are inside the definition, not an afterthought to passenger service. Second, the phrase “including electric aircraft or electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft” is inclusive rather than exclusive: the statute does not limit AAM to eVTOL designs.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), in report R48984 (published 12 June 2026, updated 14 July 2026), summarises the concept as a system for flying a few passengers and small payloads over relatively short distances, about 10 to 150 miles, using new aircraft designs that mainly consist of electric-powered aircraft with vertical take-off and landing capability. Those capabilities let the aircraft use sites with smaller footprints and operate closer to city centres, transport hubs and major event venues than existing aviation infrastructure.

Where the term came from

According to CRS, a private-sector concept for on-demand urban air transport with electric vertical-lift aircraft appeared in 2016 and was called urban air transportation or urban air mobility. Because the aircraft are not limited to cities, some researchers adopted the term “advanced aerial mobility” in 2020, and “advanced air mobility” then became the common term among aviation researchers, regulators and policy advisors. So “urban air mobility” (UAM) describes the original, city-centred concept, and AAM is the broader term that replaced it in most policy and research writing.

How AAM is meant to operate

Vertiports and ground infrastructure

The urban air mobility concept described by CRS envisions local networks, each consisting of one or more large vertiport hubs with multiple landing pads and electric charging stations, plus smaller vertiports or single-pad “vertistops” dispersed across a region. The FAA’s Innovate28 implementation plan, released in July 2023, assumes a more gradual path: AAM would initially use existing airports and heliports until operations grow enough to justify building dedicated vertiports, which CRS notes may take time to win public acceptance and obtain approvals and construction permits.

Low-altitude airspace

Innovate28 expects AAM to operate in low-altitude airspace, from the ground surface up to 4,000 feet above the surface, over populated areas and in controlled airspace that already has a high volume of established flight operations. CRS concludes that this is likely to require unique management of low-altitude airspace, including dedicated flight routes and special air traffic control procedures. The plan also calls for interim measures such as waivers, deviations and exemptions to tailor approvals for commercial operators of on-demand air service using AAM vehicles. The plan suggests initial operations could be realised by 2028.

Use cases

CRS lists the civilian use cases as regional passenger operations; air cargo deliveries; public service operations (including police, fire and medical services); agricultural operations such as crop dusting; sightseeing and air tours; and corporate, private and recreational flights. It also names missions flown today by helicopter that powered-lift aircraft might eventually take over, including flights from busy urban centres to nearby airports, flights carrying workers to oil rigs and remote job sites, and helicopter emergency medical services and air ambulance flights.

Aircraft types used in AAM

Most AAM concepts use eVTOL aircraft, which CRS groups into three design families. The table below sets each family beside what CRS says about its configuration and its regulatory classification.

Design family	Configuration (CRS R48984)	Classification note (CRS R48984)
Multirotor (multicopter)	Vehicles such as quadcopters that look and fly like small drones but are large enough to carry passengers and larger volumes of cargo.	Pure multirotor designs would be technically classified as rotorcraft, because they have no wings or similar non-rotating components generating lift in horizontal flight.
Winged multirotor	Fixed vertical rotor blades or propellers, plus wings like an airplane’s to generate lift in forward flight.	Uses wings for lift in horizontal flight, the feature that the FAA and ICAO powered-lift definitions require.
Vectored thrust (tilt-rotor, tilt-prop, tilt-duct, tilt-wing)	Takes off vertically like a helicopter, then transitions partly or fully to a configuration similar to a propeller-driven airplane.	Uses wings for lift in horizontal flight, the feature that the FAA and ICAO powered-lift definitions require.

CRS reports that the FAA classifies most AAM designs as powered-lift aircraft: aircraft with characteristics of both helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes, capable of vertical take-off and landing and low-speed flight. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines powered-lift similarly. CRS also notes that the major U.S. developers are focused on designs that would be classified as powered-lift, while some designs developed in other countries, including one aircraft fully certified in China, are multirotor designs. As of the CRS update, no AAM vehicle had been certified by the FAA, although some were progressing through the required steps.

How AAM aircraft are certified

Certification is the gate between a prototype and routine operations. CRS describes the sequence as follows: the FAA type certification of an aircraft is the regulatory approval of an aircraft design, including its component parts and the conditions and limitations on its use. The FAA describes it as a five-phase process (conceptual design; requirements definition; compliance planning; implementation; post-certification activities). The developer’s application fixes a “certification basis”, the specific set of airworthiness, safety and environmental standards the design must meet. After a type certificate, a manufacturer needs a production certification, and each individual aircraft needs its own airworthiness certificate. For background on that last step, see the CASRAI guide to airworthiness.

Three findings in CRS R48984 are specific to AAM:

• Certifying a new aircraft type may take between five and nine years, and applications are valid for five years (transport category) or three years (other categories), so extensions are common.
• The FAA is requiring developers to comply with special conditions to demonstrate safety and airworthiness before issuing type certification for a specific AAM model.
• In November 2024 the FAA issued permanent regulatory changes and a temporary special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) for powered-lift aircraft that remains in force until 2035 unless superseded. The FAA determined that existing aircraft certification requirements are sufficient to encompass powered-lift designs as a special aircraft class, and it is applying many performance-based regulations for normal category airplanes to the certification basis for these aircraft.

CRS also lists design and operational challenges that certification has to address: levels of automation, pilot training and qualifications, power requirements for electric motors, battery capacity and reserve power, charging infrastructure, handling in turbulence, passenger comfort, ingress and egress, emergency evacuation and onboard safety measures.

Regulatory and policy timeline

The data table below this article lists the dated federal milestones from 2016 to 2026 as reported by CRS and the text of Public Law 117-203, each with the actor and the source. Three of them change what the term means in practice:

• October 2022: Public Law 117-203 puts the definition in statute and orders a Department of Transportation interagency working group, chaired by the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy, to plan and coordinate safety, operations, infrastructure, physical security and cybersecurity, and federal investment for the AAM ecosystem.
• July 2023: the FAA issues a final rule allowing air carrier operations with powered-lift aircraft to carry passengers and cargo, and releases Innovate28.
• December 2025 and March 2026: DOT releases a national AAM strategy and comprehensive plan, then announces eight projects selected for the integrated pilot program that Executive Order 14307 (June 2025) directed, covering uses such as air transport, medical response, cargo transport and rural access.

Where AAM matters for research and technical work

Several parts of the statute and the CRS report point to concrete research and operational interests. These are drawn from the sources, not from any claim about particular institutions.

• Academia is a named stakeholder. Public Law 117-203 directs the working group to engage “academia with experience working with industry on new technology and commercialization”, alongside manufacturers, operators, first responders, utilities and telecommunications groups.
• The statute’s review covers supply chain. The working group’s required review includes the steps needed for a robust and secure domestic supply chain, infrastructure (aviation, cybersecurity, telecommunication, multimodal and utility) and the economic, environmental, emergency-response and natural-disaster-response benefits of AAM.
• Medical and public-service flights are named use cases. CRS lists medical services among public service operations, and the pilot program under Executive Order 14307 names medical response as a potential use. Planners of emergency-response or medical-transport logistics are therefore inside the stated scope.
• Design work overlaps with established tools. Aircraft geometry, aerodynamics and wind-tunnel testing used for conventional aircraft apply to the same design problems; see the guides on OpenVSP parametric aircraft geometry, the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames and what aerospace engineering covers.
• Safety management is a cross-cutting requirement. The CRS list of challenges (automation, battery reserve, evacuation) sits within the broader framework described in the guide to aviation safety and safety management systems.

Common misunderstandings

AAM is not the same as drones

CRS notes that multirotor AAM designs resemble small drones in layout but are large enough to carry passengers or larger cargo loads. The statutory definition is about transporting “people and property” by air with advanced-technology aircraft; it does not equate AAM with small unmanned aircraft.

AAM is not only urban air taxis

Urban air mobility was the 2016 concept. The AAM term was adopted precisely because the aircraft are not limited to urban operations, and the use-case list now includes cargo, agriculture, public service and recreation.

AAM is not the same as eVTOL

eVTOL describes a class of aircraft. AAM describes the transportation system. The statute’s definition includes electric aircraft generally, and defines “electric aircraft” to include hybrid (fuel and electric) propulsion.

Certified does not mean flying commercially

Type certification of a design is one step. CRS describes production certification, per-aircraft airworthiness certification, operator approvals and continued-airworthiness obligations as further steps, and notes that the Innovate28 plan only suggests initial operations by 2028.

Frequently asked questions

What does AAM stand for?

AAM stands for advanced air mobility. U.S. law defines it in Public Law 117-203 as a transportation system that transports people and property by air between two points in the United States using aircraft with advanced technologies, in controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

What is the difference between AAM and UAM?

Urban air mobility is the 2016 private-sector concept of on-demand electric vertical-lift transport within cities. Advanced air mobility, adopted by some researchers in 2020 and defined in statute in 2022, is the broader term covering regional, cargo and public-service operations as well.

How far do AAM flights go?

CRS describes flights of about 10 miles to 150 miles.

Does the FAA recognise a legal definition of AAM?

The definition is in federal statute (Public Law 117-203, section 2(i)(1)). The FAA classifies most AAM aircraft designs as powered-lift aircraft, and its November 2024 SFAR runs until 2035 unless superseded.

Are any AAM aircraft certified in the United States?

CRS reported in its July 2026 update that no AAM vehicles had been certified by the FAA, with some progressing through the required steps. It also notes that certification of a new type may take five to nine years.

At what altitude would AAM operate?

The FAA’s Innovate28 plan expects operations in low-altitude airspace from the ground surface up to 4,000 feet above the surface.

Sources

• Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act, Public Law 117-203 (17 October 2022), section 2: congress.gov/117/plaws/publ203. Read 12 November 2026.
• Congressional Research Service, The Certification of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Aircraft: In Brief, R48984 (12 June 2026, updated 14 July 2026): everycrsreport.com/reports/R48984. Read 12 November 2026.