Ohio, known as the “birthplace of aviation”, was home to The Wright Brothers, who invented and flew the first aircraft. Now the state is preparing for the next era of aviation, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).
One of the companies pushing for AAM in the region is JobsOhio, a private economic development corporation whose role it is to help businesses and workers thrive in the state. The company does so in several ways, including expanding into new markets, such as AAM.
Tim Sweeney, Director of Aerospace & Advanced Manufacturing for JobsOhio, spoke to Advanced Air Mobility International at the recent Farnborough International Airshow about Ohio’s role in AAM, the work currently happening in the state to make it happen, and the background of the U.S. AAM Multistate Collaborative.
Tim told Advanced Air Mobility International; “Our company president, JP Nauseef, had a team that recognised the value in controlled airspace. That is going to be the limiting factor for this industry to take hold. How do you solve that problem? The answer was through an initiative out of the Air Force. The Air Force along with the State of Ohio developed a Detect and Avoid (DAA) System called SkyVision and that gets three FAA radar feeds and provides the air traffic management system and awareness of what’s flying around in the airspace. That was certified through the FAA about 7 years ago.
“Following that, now we have air traffic control we can bring the OEMs and eVTOLs in and see their business cases, get their airworthiness certificates, under the Ohio COA. From our standpoint, it was now we have the DAA system, what’s the next thing? That’s where we thought it was really time to broaden our view of AAM in Ohio, and lets go figure out what that looks like as far as flight routes, air traffic management, along regional corridors and then also providing access to urban and rural parts of Ohio.”
Tim represented the U.S. AAM Multistate Collaborative at Farnborough’s Global Urban & Advanced Air Summit (GUAAS). Tim was the lone American voice on the panel representing nearly 30 U.S. states, industry leaders and federal partners who are drafting policy and regulatory guidance for U.S. lawmakers, the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulatory agencies.
Discussing the background and aims of the collaborative, Tim commented; “Alongside partners from the State of Virginia, we were talking about if we were doing enough to accelerate AAM in the states. The conversation then led to, we need to explore this to see, how do we accelerate? What does that look like?
“Normally in our roles we are competitors, we are trying to attract Joby Aviation’s of the world. However, we thought that we needed to think a little differently on this. We then brought eight states around the table and explored this topic of AAM and different state transportation directors to come together to explore if there is an opportunity state-to-state through a collaborative be able to help accelerate states that are just learning about it and those that are mature, mentoring, helping, so that we can help address the area of policy, physical and digital infrastructure, funding programs that allows us to state-to-state.
“We started with Virginia and Ohio, then it grew to 8 states, then 18 states, and now it’s 27 states who are at the table. Most recently we had a meeting out in Portland, Oregon. The State of Oregon and Washington State hosted states for this discussion. This collaborative is really about, how do we get the right policy within the US? What are the issues around infrastructure so we can fly state-to-state instead of just one off’s? The read out of that will be to help inform the FAA, help inform the AAM interagency working group. Industry was there and provided input. The aviation directors were able to talk directly to the OEM’s to see what they’re thinking. It’s a way to broaden how we are approaching it.”
The next meeting for the collaborative is due to take place at the NASAO 2024 event in Pittsburgh, September 7-11. There the plan is to begin providing consensus papers on key topics, roles of states, and what type of infrastructure is required from state-to-state.
“It’s recognising that what’s important to Alaska may not be important to Texas, but may be important to Ohio. Having that understanding that its a policy that may be unique, we are all sovereign states in this conversation but there is some similarity if you want to apply across the country, and state-to-state,” Sweeney added.
Talking specifically about the current work going into AAM in Ohio, Sweeney stated; “In 2023 we formed five regional teams across the state, four of them are in major metro areas, Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati, and Dayton. Those teams are comprised of transportation planners, economic development, universities, OEMs, industry, airports, and academia. Their focus is to determine flight routes, use cases, and understand where is that market demand and help usher in AAM into those areas.
“The fifth area is in rural Ohio where it’s mountainous, lot of trees, two lanes roads, therefore the opportunity we see in healthcare and logistics is a place for AAM. Instead of going through mountainous roads to get where you need to go you can fly over instead. We are meeting with those communities and regional partners to have those discussions early and it is all about education at this time. In the last three years we have had roundtables across the state to have conversations on what is AAM, why is it important, and we bring our Department of Transportation along with us and one of the OEM’s, and then open it up for questions for the community. It is a collaborative.”
