The U.S. Department of Transportation has released its Advanced Air Mobility National Strategy: A Bold Policy Vision for 2026–2036, outlining how the federal government intends to shepherd air taxis, electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, and increasingly autonomous operations into the national airspace and transportation system.

Mandated by the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act, the strategy is the product of an interagency working group (IWG) that drew more than 100 subject-matter experts from over 25 federal agencies. The result is a framework that links airspace, infrastructure, security, community engagement, workforce, and automation into a single policy roadmap, paired with a separate Comprehensive Plan that will guide implementation and budgeting. 

For operators, OEMs, and infrastructure developers watching the FAA’s AAM type certification roadmap, vertiport standards and the Part 108 BVLOS NPRM, this document is an early signal of how the federal government intends to align regulatory, funding, and research activity around AAM over the next decade.

From demos in 2027 to autonomy by 2035

By 2027, the strategy anticipates demonstrations and initial operations using contemporary aircraft at existing airports, with a strong push for a U.S.-based supply chain that includes automation, advanced composites, and telecom providers. By 2030, new operations are expected in multiple urban and rural areas, with quiet powered-lift and short takeoff and landing aircraft flying from purpose-built vertiports funded largely by private capital and connected to a “brand new state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control system” at DOT. By 2035, the document points to “advanced air operations” including fully autonomous flight in labor-constrained or harsh environments. 

The overarching policy goals are to position the United States as a global leader in AAM, maintain high levels of safety, security and national defense, encourage smart private investment, and deliver public benefits such as enhanced mobility, economic development and noise mitigation, while expanding the aviation workforce and diversifying supply chains. 

Airspace: toward cooperative low-altitude traffic management

On airspace, the strategy endorses an evolution from today’s centrally managed system toward a more automated, “cooperative” model in defined low-altitude areas. The FAA would retain regulatory authority, but multiple approved service providers—many of them private—would share responsibility for traffic management, surveillance and information services in these cooperative areas under FAA oversight. 

Key airspace actions include:

• Building on the FAA’s Automation Evolution Strategy to modernize legacy automation and decision-support systems so they can handle projected AAM volumes and more complex low-altitude operations. 
• Researching new surveillance solutions for low-altitude, high-density environments where radar and traditional ADS-B coverage may be limited, including self-reported position data and third-party situational awareness services. 
• Developing scalable digital communications between aircraft, traffic managers and infrastructure that can move beyond voice, integrate commercial wireless and satellite networks, and accommodate AI-enabled monitoring and deconfliction. 
• Defining information-exchange standards and security requirements so that FAA systems, third-party providers and operators can share trajectory, surveillance and flight plan data securely and interoperably. 

For BVLOS and AAM operators tracking Part 108 and related rulemakings, this is a clear indicator that future approvals will depend not just on individual aircraft and operators, but on participation in a federated, data-rich traffic services ecosystem.

Infrastructure: repurposing airports, building vertiports, powering fleets

On the ground, DOT leans heavily on existing infrastructure in the early years. With roughly 20,000 landing facilities in the United States—about 13,000 airports and more than 6,000 heliports—the strategy urges operators and communities to use and lightly modify existing assets for early AAM services wherever possible, including non-federally-obligated airports that can move more quickly on approvals. 

At the same time, the document acknowledges that scaling AAM will require:

• Updated vertiport guidance. FAA’s Engineering Brief 105A for vertiport design is an interim step; a unified Vertical Lift Infrastructure Advisory Circular is planned to combine heliport and vertiport standards and address higher-tempo operations, remote and autonomous aircraft, and operations in IMC. 
• Energy planning. DOE and DOT are tasked with quantifying future electrical and hydrogen demand for airports, heliports and vertiports, building on work like the Vertiport Electrical Infrastructure Study and demonstrations such as the Athena Project. The aim is to give local sponsors tools to plan firm, resilient power for AAM alongside surface EV and other electrification programs. 
• Spectrum and CNS modernization. FAA, FCC and NTIA are directed to collaborate on communications, navigation and surveillance spectrum needs, modernize aging CNS technologies and explore how 5G, satellite services and private traffic management systems can support aviation-grade reliability and cybersecurity.
• Complementary PNT. Recognizing GPS vulnerabilities and performance limits in urban canyons, under canopy and at high latitudes, the strategy elevates DOT’s Complementary PNT Action Plan as a priority for AAM corridors and clusters, so that fleets are not dependent on a single GNSS source. 
• Low-altitude weather networks. Because most AAM flights will operate below 5,000 feet in more turbulent atmospheric boundary layers, the strategy calls for a microscale weather sensing and “nowcast” network—potentially including data from AAM aircraft themselves—backed by appropriate spectrum for dissemination and, ultimately, predictive tools.

For city, state and tribal sponsors, an important signal is the emphasis on engagement and financing models. The strategy explicitly encourages SLTT participation in planning and highlights efforts like NASAO’s AAM Multistate Collaborative, while pointing to future federal support mechanisms modeled on the eVTOL and AAM Integration Pilot Program created under Executive Order 14307. 

Security, communities, workforce and automation

The remaining pillars focus on making AAM both secure and socially sustainable.

• Security. TSA and FAA are expected to apply existing vetting, screening and cybersecurity frameworks to initial piloted AAM operations, with risk-based expansion over time as remote and autonomous concepts emerge. The strategy calls for an AAM cyber-vulnerabilities working group, updated privacy impact assessments, and stronger supply-chain analysis in coordination with DHS, Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce. 
• Community planning and engagement. DOT acknowledges ongoing confusion about the respective authorities of FAA and SLTT governments over siting and operating AAM infrastructure. The strategy commits to clarifying roles and providing best-practice playbooks for public engagement, as well as research tools and shared noise data so communities can understand the impacts of new vertiports and routes. 
• Workforce. An interagency action plan is proposed to map future workforce impacts and needs, update Standard Occupational Classification codes for AAM roles, and embed AAM pathways into K–12 and post-secondary programs and national STEM and workforce initiatives. 
• Automation. Perhaps most relevant to the longer-term landscape, the strategy calls for an aviation autonomy roadmap developed with industry, increased use of virtual testing and simulation to understand scaled automation, and coordinated federal test and evaluation assets to accelerate safe, certifiable autonomy to market. 

Why it matters for the AAM and BVLOS community

For industry, the AAM National Strategy is not a rulemaking, but it is a policy signal. It sketches the federal government’s preferred end-state: cooperative, data-driven low-altitude traffic services; vertiports integrated into local transportation plans; CPNT and microscale weather as enabling infrastructure; and an automation roadmap that aligns certification, operations, security and workforce policy.

As FAA moves forward on AAM type certification, vertiport design standards, spectrum proceedings and the Part 108 BVLOS rule, this strategy will sit in the background as a touchstone for interagency alignment and budget requests starting in FY 2027. 

Inside Unmanned Systems will continue to track how this vision is translated into specific regulatory actions—particularly where AAM integration intersects with UAS, BVLOS corridors, and national security concerns—and how OEMs, operators and SLTT partners position themselves for the 2027, 2030 and 2035 milestones DOT has now put on the table.