Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization 20221001

Aviation safety subcommittee. Thank you all for joining us today to hear testimony regarding Innovative Aviation Technology and new instruments to the National Airspace system. New entrance include innovations advanced air mobility, electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, unquote Aerial Survey systems commonly known as drones. These technologies have a wide range of applications. From inspecting Critical Infrastructure to delivering medicine in remote areas. To improving a mobility in urban areas. Along with advancements and electric propulsion, these innovative approaches offer opportunities to transport passengers and cargo or provide other Aviation Services while reducing Carbon Emissions. As we begin the process of reauthorizing the federal Aviation Administration next year, congress should incorporate provisions to advance these important developments in technology. Are you hearing today is an opportunity to consider the challenges ahead, and the approaches congress can take to respond to these challenges. Advanced air mobility is an Exciting Technology that has the ability to completely reshape the future of aviation. Analysts estimate that in the United States it could reach 115 billion dollars in the next ten years. Increasing the Public Access to, aviation strengthening National Security will contributing far less Greenhouse Gas emissions than current Aviation Technology. Given these benefits, there is widespread global interest in europe, asia and elsewhere to lead on am technology. And the United States needs to develop a plan to be the Global Leader of this technology. There are similarities between a and the bipartisan Work Congress did in the recently enacted ships and science act. Working with many of my colleagues from the state, including chair cantwell, Ranking Member wicker and senator young, we help support domestic manufacturing for semiconductors, and drastically improved federal research and development for innovative science and technologies. As am continues to advance, congress and the federal government must position in the United States to be the Global Leader of this technology. We must have a Regulatory Framework that ensures the safety of passengers and people on the ground, while creating an inviting ecosystem for effective a manufacturing and operation in the United States. That is why we welcome the opportunity to join my colleague senator moran to introduce advanced and leadership act. Our leadership will develop an Inter Agency Working Group to evaluate plants and coordinate efforts regarding the safety infrastructure and security of developing am in the United States. The department of transportation will leave this working group. But given the technical complexity of this industry and the many beneficial uses, we will incorporate expertise from across the federal government to advance this effort on a broader scale. Our legislation passed the Senate Unanimously on september 21st, and will soon head to the president s desk. I look forward to all legislation becoming, law as the doj and many other agencies can begin their work without delay. They moran cinema am leadership bill as the first down. In two ensure safety the faa needs to provide clarity to the entrepreneurs and innovators who are developing this new technology. Earlier this year the faa changed the path for certification for these ai aircrafts which creates confusion among stakeholders. Looking ahead in order to provide certain to the faa needs to promulgated timely regulations to ensure that commercial operations occur safely, that pilots are treated appropriately and that the aviation workforce will be ready to fill the aa and jobs in the future. United states will also need additional infrastructure owners who safely effectively integrate am into our aviation structures. I was pleased to introduce known as the interest of her jobs act, which by the 25 billion dollars in two effusion imprisoned for in the next 20 years. These investments will find improvements in every over the cross the country. While rebuilding and modernizing air Traffic Control infrastructure. As i visit airports across arizona, i am starting to see the benefits of these historic investments. This week, the faa released reports on bystanders to safely integrate am into airports. Today, our panel will provide the response about the infrastructure including electric charging infrastructure needed for our robots and build out. Todays hearing will also focus on drones and developing the joint economy of the future. Like a, and this is another area where we need to maintain American Leadership and build upon previous factors. Interesting johnson with a commercial and recreational perspective remains strong. As of january 2022, over 860,000 drones have been registered with the faa, along with over 260,000 drone pilots. Drones are providing Crucial Services to arizona and throughout the nation. They can deliver essential cargo such as medicine to rural areas and communities. Drones also have the ability to monitor and respect vital infrastructure, including pipelines, electric transmission lines, and railroads for Team Maintenance after natural disasters when commercials conditions may not be safe for human workers. There is more work to do as the United States is threatening the head of foreign competitors. For example, congress is working with stakeholders in the faa to have safe infrastructure for which may be a failure of additional what we heard today from leaders electric, bolton which provides the opportunity to have while simultaneously minimizing Carbon Emissions from aircrafts. Our committee will be learning more of across any barriers for states that hinder the growth of this technology. We have an excellent panel today, with witnesses representing industry and thought leaders across the atm, drone in the electric propulsion industry. Our witnesses will advise on congresss role in reducing the sectors, creating jobs, and securing American Leadership in the aviation advance of the 21st century. Thank you all for joining us today. And now i would like to turn it over to Ranking Member, cruz for his Opening Statement. Thank, you madam chair. I appreciate your help with all this. This is a critically important issue. Won, frankly, i dont know weve been giving nearly enough attention to. From drones, era to Propulsion Systems, the aviation enterprise is filled with new and exciting technologies that promised to transform how we live and how we work. Whether it is delivery drones getting medications to seniors in the most rural parts of the country, or industrial drones doing Long Distance pipeline inspection to ensure the safe transportation of oil and natural gas. New vertical takeoff and landing vehicles enabling long tossed short haul air transportation to reduce congestion and cities, or new propulsion technologies which will use less fuel or even new fuels to go farther with less. It is a exciting time in aviation. As im sure our witnesses will discuss today every one of us here is facing a similar problem, uncertainty. While the issues facing the faa are numerous, and many of them are very complex, the inability of the agency to do its job and manage the National Aerospace system is threatening to cut American Innovation and Global Leadership off at the knee. Whether that is on the acidification front or platforms, rules for remote ideally or operation beyond visual line of sight, integration into the air Traffic Management enterprise or any other issues, our regulatory system too often is paralyzed by these decisions. They are exceedingly complex and would present a challenge for even the smartest and most well equipped. Some days, the faa seems unable to do even the most basic part of his job. I think that, especially more recently in no small part due to a lack of leadership from the faa and the d. O. T. , and a lack of interest on the part of the white house. Take a look at the faas organizational chart. Throughout the agency there are more than a dozen Important Roles being filled by acting officials, including the very top spot. They are in places like the aviation safety office, the air traffic organization, the assistant for nextgen. International Affairs Office in the air Traffic Safety even when the administration finally sends us a nominee for faa him illustrator, he son someone with almost zero evasion experience, a requisite for the job, who as recent news has highlighted, has more than a little bit of news surrounding him. He is more than a little rich, wanting the transportation secretary beat up on the airlines when he seems to simultaneously ignore the absolute hollowing out of the faa and lack of firm permanent leadership there. Somehow, secretary buttigieg has the time and resources to run around the country cutting ribbons on Infrastructure Projects and launching a new, quote, Airline Customer service task force, he cant find the time to fill critical vacancies at the faa. The secretary hasnt even responded to questions, for the record, from his Budget Hearing in may of this year. Five months ago look, i get that you, the panel before us, you do not represent the faa. I dont know how you look at what i just outlined and think that anyone in this administration is placing aviation at the top of the priority. Even as we are meeting here today, there are still dozens of rules and reports from the last faa reauthorization in 2018 that still have not been done. One thing i offered, the commercial balloon pilot safety act which simply requires the faa to require a medical certificate for commercial balloon pilots. Which was the result of a hurry fixed bloom crash in texas. Recommendations from the and cfc still remain incomplete years after we passed it into law. In fact, it wasnt until november of last year that the faa even issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, three years after the 2018 reauthorization. If the faa cant even get Something Like this done, commercial air balloon safety, how exactly are we supposed to have faith that they can get the much more complex task around integrating new entrance done, let alone done in a timely and efficient way . I look forward to hearing from witnesses, what they think needs to be done. If its more resources for the faa, faster regulatory timelines, organizational shakeups . We are all ears. Congress has almost always taking a collaborative approach in aviation regulation. Directing the faa to go through rulemaking to get Stakeholder Input and shaping and crafting regulations based on feedback. In this space, where emerging innovation is meeting and olden entrenched bureaucracy, we are quickly getting to a point where something have to give. A 41 and determined that what gives will not be continued American Leadership in aviation. Thank you. Thank, you i now recognize the chair of the full commerce committee, senator cantwell for a opening. Thank you senator sinema, thank you for this important meeting with your colleague, senator cruz. And thank you to the important witnesses we have today. I often want to thank, you mentioned the chips and science act. I want to thank you for your help and leadership in the final days of our organization and getting that done. Today we are going to hear from a set of witnesses talking about the Current Issues in aviation. And the fact that faa bill is due for reauthorization next year. This is an opportunity to talk about the prospects of that and what needs to be addressed. This hearing will specifically address how congress can help address airspace safety and innovation and what we need to do for the future, whether that is drones, new am ability concepts. I look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses. I especially happy to hear from Gregory Davis, president and ceo of eviation. I want to congratulate eviation on yesterdays first flight of alice, first time and all electric consumer aircraft built from the ground up took flight. I wish we had time to show the video from it. You could hear a lot of cheers from moses lake from everyone there for this historic occasion. This groundbreaking aircraft took flight from 1300 foot air in the heart of washington. Along with local Companies Like mine ex and aero tack. I can see why this project was considered successful. Electric aircraft, like alice, building 95 composite materials, represent the inspiring promise of america built in and the Sustainable Future in aviation. Locations like moses lake shows how a combination of private infrastructure and public ingenuity create a hotbed for creating next Generation Aerospace technology. Eviation and advance air mobility concept provide an opportunity to expand connectivity, to underserved communities and airports. We know the half of all flights in the u. S. Are less sorry, 500 miles in range. Yesterday successful integration test flight proved the concept that we have sustainable Aviation Technology, it can transport people to these short and middle mile regional routes. This significantly can reduce the Aviation Industries environmental impact. Due to carbon emission in no exclusion. Achieving the technical milestone of Companies Like aviation of commercialization of aircraft like alice in the end of the evolution of Better Technology. Something that was a very key part of the chips and science act. The faa certification process will also have to be there, moving forward on the all electric if it is going to become an industry standard. I think the ceo said it best, these new opportunities for places like seattle to wall a wall of, spoken to muzzling, moses lead to parts of oregon or california. Now they are the kind of thing that will be more economical with these kind of flights. Electric planes can connect regional communities in ways previously not possible. There are more than 2000 underutilized airports in the United States. Knows restriction, it covers over 200 airports in the United States alone. Congress has made significant process with powering this innovation and dynamic. We need to continue to work to help those opportunities to move forward. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provided a Grant Program to develop Sustainable Aviation fuel and also to incent other types of manufacturing, like electric. 280 billion is authorized to bolster innovation to create new regional tech ups and create historic investment and basic research in appliances. We know that investing in innovation will help us tomorrow. Another innovation another entrant in aviation, drones. One of the Fastest Growing segments of aviation in the United States. Over 860,000 drones have been registered with the faa. As of january over 260,000 pilots have been certified. The faa expects that number of registered drones to grow by 2. 3 million by 2024. The use case for drones continues to grow well beyond Package Delivery to include surveying infrastructure inspection, precision agriculture, whether monitoring, even disaster response. The association for on the crude regal system forecast of 2015 and 2025, civilian drones will added two billion dollars to the u. S. Economy along with 103 new high paying jobs. It will require a technical degree. Additionally, u. S. Based manufacturing a busy designing and manufacturing electric aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing capability. These operations can take off like a helicopter. My colleagues before me have mentioned this. Fly to a fixed wing airplane. The aan in the United States is estimated to reach 15 billion by 2025, create more than 280,000 jobs by 2035. Importantly, alternative propulsion technologies are environmentally friendly and a musthave for the indices future. Aviation contributes 12. 5 of u. S. Transportation emissions and accounts for 3 of the nations to lure Greenhouse Gas production. Dealing with these issues is going to be vitally important for the future. I look forward to hearing from my colleagues and thinking about the future of aviation. Of my colleagues have pointed out, it does require strong leadership from the faa. A bill that senator wicker and i passed which we expect as we continue to have oversight over the faa to get the right policies in place, getting the right people in place, and continuing to focus on security as well as security will help us be the leaders in aviation. I hope that we can talk about how to continue to maintain that as we move forward with the reauthorization. I think the chair. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the full committee, senator wicker for his Opening Statement. Surely you must realize eventually youre going to get a chance to talk at this hearing. I do want to thank senators sinema, cruz, and cantwell for beginning work on this subcommittee and beginning to work on the faa re for next year. 9000 red to drones. Used for recreational and commercial purposes. The drones carry out a wide range of past information gathering, and mapping during the pandemic emergency waivers granted by the faa provided a positive indication of the potential of drones operating safely outside of the numerals we witnessed pizza drones lure food and medicine to those quarantined at home giving us a window into the future drawn venues during the pandemic also highlighted the corners of r d of improving safety performance in partnership with the faa anniversary and the now helping to enhance the drone Traffic Management systems air Traffic Control safety in Pilot Training im proud of my home state of mississippi and Mississippi State university lead a consortium called a short to carry out much of this physical r d. In 2015 the faa designated assure and the Agency Center of excellence for drone r d. They recently extended that roll through may of 2025. I want to recognize assures executive director, one of our witnesses today. I hope that colonel luxion will touch on some of the work done by assure assure and how it will help integrate drones into our airspace in the safe matter. Justice drones are becoming commonplace, another suite of Aviation Technology known as advanced air mobility or aam is emerging. It is not a single technology, but rather a collection of technologies applied to the aviation system. Aam the eagles have many potential uses such transporting passengers, as senator cantwell has alluded to, moving cargo, and connecting Rural Communities to larger cities. Electric tower for air taxis, for example, may someday be able to airlift across town or to the airport in the matter of minutes. Much of the basic technology for aam aircraft is already developed. We should begin certifying the development of incas attorney at 2020 for the industry has now shifted its focus to infrastructure and Workforce Development. Regulatory process. The death and next years bill will do the same for aam tempest the benefit would do better for witnesses as we gather input for reauthorization we should be mindful of safety, efficiency, and security of need technology while at the same time continuing to promote innovation in this vital industry. Thank you senator sinema, i yield back one minute and 21 seconds. Greatly appreciated their senator wicker thank you very much. I will introduce our witnesses, a first witnesses lisa ellman executive director of the commercial Drone Alliance and and authority in drone policy and law. Miss allen, thank you for joining us today. Here in our country Opening Statement. Chairwoman sinema, Ranking Member cruz, members of the subcommittee on aviation subcommittee and thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts at this important hearing today on how we can promote aviation safety for the benefit of the american public. My name is lisa ellman i am the executive director of the commercial Drone Alliance, chair of the uncrewed aircraft system practice at the hogan level. I am honored to provide remarks on behalf of the cta on the upcoming faa reauthorization. The cdc is an independent Nonprofit Organization with leaders in drone we work with all levels of government to collaborate with policy for safe and secure drone policy integration. The commercial Drone Industry is delivering significant lifesaving societal and economic benefits for all americans. Here just a few examples. Drones are enhancing worker safety. In 2020, there were 64 accidents resulting in 13 deaths and the aerial agricultural industry. Including accidents in texas, colorado, georgia, illinois, nevada, south dakota, missouri, kansas. Use of drones for these operations can prevent such a fatalities. Drones are promoting infrastructure resilience. Providing Early Detection of oil and gas leaks and inspecting our nations railways, bridges, and electrical grids. Drones are protecting the environment and enhancing sustainability, offering a substitute for ground zero goals and reducing Carbon Emissions associated with traditional inspection methods. Drones are expanding access to medicines and critical supplies. They are democratizing aviation by opening up the industry to broader base. Theyre helping safety and providing firefighters. Theyre sitting with disaster cleanup. And florida today, Florida Power and Light Company are deploying in flying drones in response to hurricane ian. Advancements in this industry will make sure america is global competitive, our leadership in global aviation. These benefits will be fully realized only if Congress Takes action. Congress led the way in 2012 by mandating u. S. Immigration. In the decade since, that decade remains unfulfilled. Drones are often subject to the application of inquiries regulation designed for crude aircraft. Despite the best efforts of the faa u. S. D information. They continue to see drawn integration, and its onward, as a long road ahead with significant challenges. Progress for sustainable grown elevation has been exceedingly throw. Americas falling behind other countries. Old and divisive congressional leadership is necessary once again to spur process of the integration of drones for the american public. While there is much to be done in the interim, the faa regulation is an excellent opportunity for congress to demonstrate that leadership. I think are too many legislative proposals in a written testimony. I will highlight a few of them here. First, congress should reorganize the faa to better align responsibility with you a responsibility to uf integration. They do not relate to safety. Rather they are profit based. Meaning a well meaning Government Agency designed to regulate innovation, struggling to regulate this new environment. It can sustain and succeed inspections safely. Second, congress should from out u. S. Competitiveness by enabling states give commercial Drone Operations in the United States, including by directing timely implementation of the beyond ritual line of say aviation Rulemaking Committees excellent recommendation. Third, congress should invest in the future. Congress will develop Workforce Development training for careers and drones along with the use of drones to inspect local infrastructure by enacting the dig act. We have lots senators blumenthal inroads introducing this legislation which recently passed the house. Congress should also enable research and development by streamlining in approving processes. We have many more approvals in details with an are written testimony. Im happy to follow up with questions. In the gap continues to grow between technology and policies within the United States. Congress has the opportunity in the next faa reauthorization to close the gap and bring the benefits of commercial drones to the american public. The commercial Drone Alliance appreciates the opportunity to be prayer before you. We look forward to continuing to elaborate with you, entering americas Global Leadership in aviation. Thank you. Our next witness is Gregory David president and chief officer of eviation, and manufacture and developer of electric aircrafts. He is a license commercial prices and has 15 years of experience in various airspace companies. Mr. Davis thank you returning, us erectness really Opening Statement. Thank you very much having me today. As you said my name is Gregory Davis, im the ceo of eviation, developer of electric aircraft based in wilmington, washington. We manufacture the first allelectric commuter aircraft integrating [inaudible] mr. Davies, we are having a little bit of trouble hearing you. Your cutting in and now. If its okay with you, i will have our text folks work on that for a second. We will move on and then come back. Is that okay with everyone . Great. We will move to our next witness, rick higher colonel luxion who prefers to go by lux, i like. It lux is the director of faa center of excellence for Unmanned Aircraft systems, the space center campus. He previously served in the u. S. Air force for more than 30 years, he led the air force first armed squadron. Lux, thank you for joining us today. You are naturally Opening Statement. Thank you, thank you madam chairman. Ranking member crew, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on uncrewed aircrafts. I will speak today from my seven years of experience of executive director of assure a Mississippi State University Alliance of 26 leading Research Universities and over 100 industry in government partners that serves as the faa center of excellence. Also serves 30 years in the air force world was fortunate to play a leadership role in the integration of u a f. From this perspective it is mostly good news, a story of innovation, growth, development, and safety. In 2014, Congress Called in the faa to establish a ua of center of excellence to provide Academic Research data and important needs necessary to a form of a of its regulatory responsibility with concurred aircraft safely and efficiently into the national astley system. In 2015, the faa awarded to ensure the responsibility through a competitive process. A lot has happened since the seven years and assure was established. Through the support of congress, usher has shown from a half million of corporation to 14 millions in max funding in early. Today congressional support for the faa in a sure is a proxy 91 million. These funds have advanced air mobility, driver security, and the integration of uf in disaster response, just to name a few. Sure research promoted faa rulemaking in the development of the industry standards. Additionally, sure continues to develop an usher in network of worldwide affiliations to harmonize canada, the united kingdom, israel, in singapore all have affiliated universities in the assure consortia. Currently, assure is in discussion with new zealand and australia to develop a new academy there. We work to support the faa, and we have led to other development. We are engaged in nine studies for nasa, which investigates the technology to support uncrewed Aircraft Task management. So crucial will be beyond visual sight line operations. Improving Aviation Weather forecasting below 500 feet. Congress has also supported a short fema development. In the integration of the eua of technology in Public Safety and data response. Assure is leading the development of assure safe, a venerated ecosystem that will provide standard education, testing, certification, and credentialing of first of ponders used in u. S. F and themselves. All the progress is being made on integration, there are two areas that i believe media tension. First, there is a need for a national uas program. From the ceo e program, i see the faa waiting on signals and investment it is street to focus its investment efforts but industry is waiting on the faa to develop pathways to certain patient an operation to help produce their regulatory risk. The faa should produce a detailed regulatory roadmap that includes the specification of specific regulations to support Public Safety, an officer primary spawn civility for east, and the research necessary to inform the departments. It is critical that this road bypassed milestones national dates. The faa should involve Key Stakeholders including industry, academia, and Standard Committee leadership in the development of this plan. A detailed roadmap would help all stakeholders, including congress, provide appropriate resources, measure success, and make adjustments as required. Second, assure request the Congress Spends its policy in tofino to help include diversity and inclusion, also to increase the amount of research that is so needed to speed rulemaking in standard development. As we look to grow our capabilities and capacity include more partners we found the austria requirements arent obstacle for participation in minority for in the tune hush here reduced kosher requirements which then to actually greater participation area we sewage a trump period of relief would increase minority institutions and eliminate the financial burden and risk across all co interest these. Increased regulatory process would also be advised in industry to actively engage. To assure its u. S. Center of excellence through 2025. I look forward to your questions and collaborative with union staff and the future. Thank you. We are still working with some of the topical difficulties, mr. Davis. We work on to our next witness. Welcome to and arizonan, Stephane Fymat president of Honeywell Aerospace, and business enough. He has led how he was out speech business Creation Unit since march, 2020. Thank you from traveling from arizona to washington d. C. Today. You are gonna try your statement. Chair sinema, Ranking Member cruz, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the invitation todays hearing to discuss honey wells perspective on they are coming faa reauthorization act. New entrants into the National Airspace system. My name is Stephane Fymat im the Vice President and general manager of Honeywell Aerospace capabilities. An Unmanned Aerospace capability system. It is probably based in arizona, a leader in the Aerospace Industry and home to 19 of our facilities and nearly 7000 employees. Honey well invented autopilot over 100 years ago and continues to innovate to this day. We are at a great position to help shape the future of advanced aerial mobility. Our mobility lab and phoenix is where we have Pioneering Technology without which these aircraft just are not possible. Examples include automated Flight Control and i to asian system, electric compulsion systems that enable ultra quiet in emissions free aircraft. Detect and avoid systems to prevent a collision with other aircrafts in obstacles. In particular, how we will invest a large portion of our r d into technology that makes flight more sustainable, such as electric power generation, garbage and fuel cells, and Sustainable Aviation fuel. These new aircraft are set to be the most profound change in the Aerospace Industry and in peoples live since the invention of the jet engine. They will take off and land vertically just like a helicopter, it will fly on their wings just like an airplane. During takeoff and landing, there are no louder than a modern dishwasher. They pick you up and drop you off right in your neighborhood. It can do the same for cargo, enabling companies to fly goods from layer has to warehouse and its streamline supply chain. Dropping off parcels directly to your home, and emergency supplies to disaster areas. However, a lack of a Clear Pathway to the certification of these aircraft, and an absent of a Long Distance commercial operation challenges this industry. Challenges that believe in the development of new modes of transportation established or reaffirmed their Global Leadership. We have seen this before in the auto industry, the rocket industry, and the airline industry. Developing is not enough. We must also lead in implementation as well. Like the u. S. Has done in the past with the interstate highway system, and europe has done with high speed rail, this is the next new node of transportation and it is playing out today. These technology will innovations are accelerating. The pace of acceleration must also accelerate or the United States it is time to come together to remove the regulatory gap make this a reality. We recommend that congress mandate the faa to pass faa aircraft certification regulation tonight about 20 24th. Validate am aircraft certified in europe using our existing bilateral aviation endorsements. Insurance regulations are how ominous with these countries by 2024. Developed a vacation standards for autonomous aircraft including on piloted and removes crew could do in passenger aircraft. Include the ruling to extend beyond regular onsite regulation for drones of all size in 2024. And honey well our singleminded mission is to cocreator, together with leading crafted liners, the advanced aerial mobility industry. I commend senator sinema, for the recent passage of the bipartisan stand a mobility act. I also applaud the effort of the faa, particularly in the beyond visual line of sight Rulemaking Committee for working more closely with industry and stakeholders. Next years faa we offer an important opportunity for congress to make u. S. Global leadership in aam and drones a top national priority. And immediately execute these gantt. Thank you for being here, i look forward to questions. Thank you. Next we have edward bolen president and ceo of the National Business aviation association. Mr. Bowman has led nbas in 2004, previously shared previously brought with the planning of manufacturing. He wasnt appointed of president george w. Bush to sit on the Aerospace Future board. Mr. Bowen, thank you for joining us today. Youre recognized for questions today. Thank you senator sinema. It is a great honor to be here today. Talking to an important milestone with the evolution of undermanned and inability. For decades, the National Business association has represented companies that rely on general aviation and aircraft to get people and products where they need to be when they need to be there. Over the decades that have been evidence in the variety of technologies. Companies have used my planes and monoplanes, fixed wing aircraft and wrote a wing aircraft. They have use Propulsion Systems including radios, pistons, in turbans. The aircraft themselves have been built with wood and fabric, aluminum, ten composite the day the United States is fortunate to have the worlds largest, safest, most efficient and diverse air Transportation System in the world. Our country has benefited enormously from that. Today we have an opportunity to talk about technology that can do even more. In your opening remarks, several of you mentioned the importante of predictability uncertainty. Let me say this, we are all certain that advanced air mobility has the potential to bring enormous benefits to our country, to our citizens. To our communities. It has the potential to bring societal benefits, economic benefits and National Security benefits. It has the ability to make on demand air mobility more sustainable, more accessible, more affordable. We want and we need advanced air mobility, here are some of the things that we, as a country, need to do. As stefan said, we need to make it a national priority. We need a coordination National Strategy. We also need transparency, communication, and certainty in our regulations and our progress. We need to have concurrent, collaborative work being done. Like the others, i want to thank senator sinema and moran for the aaa Center Cooperation and. That is important because it brings together different departments within the u. S. Government. Make sure that we are working together, not at cross purposes. I also want to focus on what we need to do in terms of coordination and communication within the faa. That is we need to be concurrent, collaborative, across all the different lines of distance. According to the am to come to the forefront, companies will need tight certificate, production to pivot. Operators will need operations specifications. We are going to need an infrastructure that facilitates those operations. We need to work collaboratively and concurrently or all of those eventualities, one after the other. This is an opportunity. Ive already mentioned the infrastructure. Instead of infrastructure that is forwardlooking, today the United States is blessed to have an Amazing Network of aviation and airports. 5000 public use airports in every congressional district. They are in some of our tribal areas. They provide access to our air Transportation System to the world economy. In order for us to move forward, we need to recognize that the infrastructure of the future will require electrification. It may require hydrogen. We have an opportunity to build for the future now. Here again i, want to thank senator moran who worked with senator medea who in this communities are the pass past the advanced aviation infrastructure monitoring act, and opportunity to plan, to provide plans for the construction of the infrastructure of tomorrow. We need to be about that today. We also need to focus on the workforce of tomorrow. We will have expertise within the faa, and communities to find the best in the brightest into our community as we go forward. I listed before, this is an important milestone on the evolution of transportation. And has the opportunity to benefit american citizens, communities, and our country. We look forward to working closely with every member of this committee. Every member of congress. Everyone in the executive branch. And people all over the country to realize the benefits of advanced air mobility. Thank you. Thank you, now we will go back to Gregory Davis president and chief thank offer at thank you very much, if i may can i confirm the audio is now working . It is. Thank you. Lovely, thank you very much. Good afternoon. I am Gregory Davis. I have the president and ceo of aviation aircraft. We manufacture all aircraft in harland, washington. We are currently in the process of developing the worlds first all electric aircraft with Better Technology and electric motion. Senator sinema, Ranking Member cruz, senator cantwell, as members of the subcommittee on aviation and thank you on the opportunitys day to testify on the policies needed to usher in a new era of aviation. Yesterday, thank you again for the very warm welcome, yesterday we successfully completed the first flight of our hero Mission Aircraft alice. It was a historic day for aviation history. A major milestone in electric aviation. The first time that an aircraft this guile have can successfully completed a fly. A moment of great pride, all of us that the Aviation Community in general. We were able to show people what affordable, clean, Sustainable Aviation looks like and felt like for the first time in a fixed wing all electric aircraft. It had taken collaboration across the ecosystem to reach this groundbreaking moment. I was my hope that one day this type of travel will be so prevalent in our society will not need to use the word electric to describe it. Electric aviation had the power to transform transportation throughout the country. If we can restore and transport rule animals that are often underserved. Today only 500 of the 5000 important to find any commercial flights despite 60 of the population being within ten miles of the airport. And 95 being within 25 . Early market traction from foreign operators including kate bearing global crossing, global Cargo Company dhl for you cargo. Today i am here to share my key area must be prioritized in order to make aviation the standard Regional Travel in the United States and beyond. My comment will be addressed with the electric takeoff unerring market. While it dodging migrated support for the advancement of all aspects of urban air mobility and Sustainable Aviation. The advanced air Mobility Market and will allow us to me 50 airport in air force structure in the United States without increasing pollution or carbon footprint. First, we strongly encourage the faa to look beyond the borders of the United States and to work with global regulators, on the path towards certifying electric aircraft. Making significant advancement in the positive impact on the environment, electric aviation and Sustainable Aviation must be supported and adopted globally and quickly. Todays aviation is the Fastest Growing sort of greenhouse emissions worldwide and. By 2050 our share of Climate Impact is expected to be 25 to 50 if nothing is done. The sustainability challenges not one countries. It is a global challenge. The United States has the immediate opportunity to take the leadership role. We must act with a sense of urgency to drive environmental process. Also to push down on Global Competitiveness and to remain neutral. Tracking the Economic Opportunity and prosperity in terms of manufacturing here in the United States. Second, it is important that the faa focus on the clear certification of Battery Technology whether pertains to and all electric or hybrid aircraft. Be advised that the same ways we can focus on the mass adoption of electric aviation, a standard for Better Technology will ensure that we stay focused on the greater task of reducing the Environmental Air impact of aviation. Also increasing the commercial and viability in the economic benefits of Aviation Group doubly. Third, we encourage the faa to work with agencies in other departments such as the department of energy on the development of charging infrastructure and Battery Technology. The d. O. E. Is already leading ground in terms of battery infrastructure with battery pumps being a big initiative. The same could be extended to the aviation county to ensure that all electric aircraft have a line. There is an opportunity to tie in and department of energy that works on the service role in urban airports across the country. With the recent passing of bill s 516, we believe there is clear direction to facilitate this engagement. We look forward to working with this community to consider engagement with the faa reauthorization in 2023. Thank you very much to give me the opportunity to testify today. Thank you very much for joining us. Your written statements will be answered for the record. Now we begin a round of questions for the witnesses. I will first recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Piedmont, thank you again for being here today. Arizona proud to be the home of honey will Aerospace One of the leading years asians in the am a new am implying thousands of arizonas and and its locations across the state. I had the privilege of visiting the north valley site earlier this year,. Participating in a town hall with hollywood employees to answer the questions about the information sector. How do well posted in washington last week on am an issue for many Industry Leaders participated. What key findings and recommendations from that can you share with congress as we reauthorize the faa . Thank you chair cinema. Yes indeed we did host and advance air mobility summit last week we had 50 people that attended including government regulators, manufacturers, including Companies Like william, text on, vertical airspace and honor. Indeed there were insights to take away from the findings that did come with that. Its not just honey well, weve all heard it. We heard it at our summit loud and clear, we have a choice here to make. Great countries have great Transportation Systems. The feeling that came out of that was we may have gone so far to have a mandate from the right top of government that we will be a leader here. Much like in the 60s when we chose to go to the moon. This really needs to be the whole government approach. There are many stakeholders here and it is not just the faa. Their stay government local government and communities and businesses, they need an entire Community Approach if we are to succeed. Number three it does not mean going it alone. We had a lot of International Representation and estimate last year. Should be chat with other agencies in other countries . Europe, australia, japan, south korea. All of them are also tackling the same issues that we are. I working together we can come up with a set of regulations and frameworks that works in the United States and across the world. This is important for everyone, it is especially important for u. S. Countries who are working in this area to ensure that they have Global Access to global markets. Number four, there are a lot of low hanging fruit in aam. Transportation to offshore and your platforms or to help control over populated areas. Delivering critical supplies to disaster areas, while finding the infrastructure in general all of these are sparsely pilot environment the very where that you can still have very high access. Theres no reason why we dont have immediate action in these areas. Lastly we in the industry of a job to do. We have to continue to educate consumers, citizens, government and industry so people really know what it is and what isnt. There was a quote last week, the void will be filled. Let it be filled with the correct information so that we get the right information. Heres the third thing that came out of our summit last week. Thank you. Thank, you mr. Poland how have the Senate Passing of the inter agency bill to review policies, develop programs, aid in the development and deployment of aam technology and identify the Safety Security and structural card for the development of aam. I appreciate the support of our aam leadership recommendation. Can you talk about why nba supports the aam decision and why it is so important to harness the activities across the federal government to safely deploy aam. Think you chair, sinema thank you for your leadership on the bill itself. This should be a national priority. Something worthy of galvanizing our government to move forward. As we said before the benefits are enormous. What we have seen is as a country we do best when we have clear goals. This is what we want to achieve. Bringing it together as it is touch on the department of energy that finding ways to tap in to something that we are committed to. We passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we talked about the importance of the electrification of vehicles. Will we be able to use that same time of approach when we are making changes to our grid . To also make it available to airports to make sure that aviation is able to tap into it . That are some of the examples of how we need to collectively come together. We recognize what we are trying to do here is enhanced sustainability, acceptability, affordability. Giving us a chance to do some of the things that we are talking about. A lot of the things, some of the things weve talked about, we use numbers and facts just to put faces behind this. What we had could even hit new orleans. We realized our general Aviation Community that lead those airports when Louis Armstrong was flooded to bring state to state relief effort. We can do the same with advanced air mobility, particularly as were thinking about the hurricane we can move organs for transplant. We even have one of the aam company specifically designed to move organs for transplant. It is very real but it takes a collective effort. It needs to be a natural imperative and worthy of collaboration across all of our various needs across all signs in aisles on 20 him. Thank you, and i recognize Ranking Member crew for five minutes a question. Thank you madam chair, as i said in my Opening Statement i was years concerns that u. S. Leadership saw him behind in aviation. As we continue to move forward with emerging technologies like Unmanned Aircraft systems and other advanced air mobility systems i have serious doubts about how long it will take the faa to provide the regulatory certainty that these companies need. You all represent the regulated industry you all have to deal with the faa on some way or form i want to get a better understanding of the practical matter from each of you. From each of your perspectives, what seems to be the problems and why are we moving faster on fostering the growth of these new entrance and integrating them into the National Airspace . Is it a lack of resources or funds at the faa . Is it a leadership problem . What is causing the uncertainty. I would like each of you to address this. Miss woman . Thank you for that important question the challenges that move much more quickly than policy. They are systemic. I would say the folks, the individuals who have worked with at the faa are hardworking, wellintentioned individual staffers that are trying to do what they can. The reality is, it is like trying to fit a square peg into around hole. It just doesnt fit. They know using Congress Regulation designed for a crude aircraft. They are trying to fit commercial drones into this Regulatory Framework that simply does not fit. From our perspective there have been proposals out there about even the faa has recognize there is a lack of organization or a lack of leadership on this topic. We have seen some proposals coming from the administration. We appreciate that we agree that the status quo is broken. From our perspective, we need to see responsibility and authority a line. We need to have a leadership office. Several of our witnesses have talked about the need for a national vision, and ventral strategy. Certainly china and other countries are developing their own National Strategy and moving ahead in this technology. We need to do the same here at home. It is critical for our Global Competitiveness. The way to do that is actually aligning responsibility with authority within the agencies of that one office has the authority to sign off on waivers, exemptions, approvals. Right now if you want to do research and development, you can just to wait two years to get one Site Specific approval just to do r d in the u. S. It is just not acceptable. We need leadership and im happy that we have our own proposed one on this. Im happy to follow up with you and your staff as well. Thank you, that is helpful. Ive heard similar concerns from other stakeholders. It is hard to know to whom you go to even get an answer. Curnow lux . Sir, im gonna restate what was just said. You are right on when we work with industry to try to identify what requirement of what needs to be done within the faa, many times they do not know who has the responsibility and the authority across the whole gamut of what that industry is trying to do and accomplish. There is a structural issue that needs to be addressed. It cannot be put at a very low level of the faa, and have to be raised to priority level that can drive across the faa. Some level of, hey, lets get on board with this. The other thing i brought up in my Opening Statement is, okay. Once we get structures in place and those with the responsibility, what is the path forward . What are the regulatory gaps . What is missing in regulation lay it out from all aspects from which industry and First Responders Public Safety trying to accomplish. Without that, we are just going to continue everything is going to be a oneoff. The folks we work with dan and they have a trying. They run into these barriers throughout the process. I will add two points to your question here. Number one is deadlines. Nothing gets done without a schedule of deadlines. Some of the stuff happens here happens without alliance. The am certification act in 2024, we will have this later, we will have this later. If we put in deadlines and Heritage Organization accountable to the deadlines and things tend to get done. That is the first thing i would say. The second thing i would say is mindset. Mindset of 50 mandates versus innovation. There seems to be sometimes a well in order to fulfill our safety mandate, we have to make sure that we get this right. As though innovation is a threat to safety. In fact what we have seen as time and time again innovation leads to greater safety. We develop warnings of storms, radar, all of these are innovations that lead to increased safety. In fact, we dont have to do safety or innovation we can do safety and integration. Innovation can drive safely. And we are sitting here there is a hurricane going on in florida. Droned could have a lot to do with the safety in the recovery from the hurricane. Number two the safety mindset and innovation can lead to safety, not a threat to safety. Yeah, coordination and communication is the key. As you know faa has around the business here. Organization, airport certification safety, all of these need to be coordinated and communicated with each other. That does not happen without direction and purposeing to be very personal. I also want to underscore what has just been said about deadlines. It was brought up earlier that the faa will now use an approach that requires a special federal aviation regulation in order to move forward. The expectation is that will be done in two years. It is important that we stick to that timeframe and we work back trying to determine what needs to be done we also need to recognize that the faa is approaching one the industry largely approach and supports is the crawl wok ron approach start with what you know and innovate in adapt as new technologies and operations come forward. We have to make sure that it is in fact and iterative process. Just this week we had a new Design Engineering group for the thermal port. It was really critical as we were moving forward to the new normal ports that they can see we have got to start conservative bend build out. Iterate. Get to the point of advanced mobility. Mr. Davis . The air Mobility Market, commentator vacations handed for aircraft Battery Technology which allows the committee to develop the market around the world. That is a key thing that we would need from the faa. Okay. Thank. You thank you i now recognize senator rosen who is joining from her office. Senator rosen . We are not able to hear you. We are still not able to hear you, senator rosen. Do you have a few minutes to help someone technically . Im going to go to senator moran, well be right back with you. Thanks. Madam chairwoman, thank you, very much. I think our panelist here thank you for the technology here on a significant and important topic here for the significance of our countrys wellbeing. Let me start, i have a couple of questions. Let me start with miss element. During your testimony you mention the future role that this technology can play in support of the agricultural sector. You further comment on the importance of merging these new industries, these businesses. Absolutely there are so many, businesses in agriculture where the u. S. Industry has brought so many efficiency to enterprise. Agriculture is one where we have seen so much growth and that specific critical market sector. Drones can be used from everything to what are traditionally very dangerous crop spraying aerial agricultural spraying jobs. As i noted in my testimony since 2020 there were 13 aerial agricultural events including in your home the state of carrying this. There were 54 accidents. These deaths did not need to happen. These drones can do the job just as well. As well as inspecting crops. Performing other critical agriculture tasks as our population continues to grow and farmers are under increasing pressure to be efficient. Jones add efficiency there as safety and they make agriculture so much more efficient and safe. Thank you for that answer, as a state kansas is a significant aviation an Aerospace Component of our economy and its certainly the same when it comes to agriculture. I love the opportunity to see the industries in our state to advance both really at the same time. Mr. Bolton on monday the faa released new Design Guidelines for we infrastructure that will advance advance could you give us some insight into what the nbaa and Industry Leaders are doing to focus on the infrastructure side to support these new Aviation Ventures Going Forward . I would be happy to. Again, thank you senator for your leadership on the advance Infrastructure Modernization act. That was a very important part of moving forward. Obviously we have had an incredible report in the structure in the United States. 5000 public use and airports. When we look at the potential of advanced air mobility, we see the opportunity to move to starting at airports and also moving to City Building and other types of operation. We have looked to the faa for engineering briefs to allow us to begin moving forward with these vertical port standards. We did have an opportunity in the community to play comments on that. What we have seen with the engineering brief that was released on monday on many of those comments were recognized. The faa is taking a very conservative approach with the idea that as we move to the advisory circle we will iterate, we will begin understanding operation and technology. We will be able to ultimately have Port Infrastructure that is able to adapt and evolve with technologies within that operation. It is a great start. Its something we need to evolve and adapt. We are looking at this as the first up in an important iteration. That is a key part of the infrastructure as we go forward. Thank you Mister Bowland and senator sinema, thank you for your assistance on working together for this piece of legislation. Particularly your help to make sure it would receive time on the senate floor. Thank you to both you and senator cruz for todays hearing. Thank you senator graham. Senator rosen, lets give it another shot. Can you hear me now, as the famous line goes . Yes, senator rosen, we can hear you now. You are also recognized for five minutes. I appreciate it chairwoman sinema, Ranking Member cruz, this hearing is really important i appreciate all the witnesses being here today. One of the things that worried about is protecting the stadium from drones. Nevada we are at the forefront of the ua of technology, our uas test site leading the way in Autonomous Vehicle testing and robotic research. We have been designated by the faa to serve as the center for the development and testing of unmanned Autonomous Vehicles operating beyond vision, visual line of sight, excuse me. We are also one of the entertainment capital of the world. Las vegas is quickly emerging as a Sports Capital of the world, as well. I will give a shout out to the wnba champion aces. And of course formula 1 racing coming next year. According to the las vegas reviewjournal, we are also the first city to secure the nfl draft, forable, and the super bowl and our newly stadium, home of our las vegas raiders. Unfortunately like the stadium and so many others across the country are a potential target for drawn acts by backyard actors. So miss solomon, as we make policy decisions, how can we continue to rima vance advancement and drones while protecting Critical Infrastructure from stadiums and evolving threats. And mr. Fema i understand your company has some experience with this. Maybe you would answer app missile man, these . Thank you for that important question. Thank you for nevadas leadership and all things sports. Absolutely, it is a critical issue. Let me just start by saying, obviously most Drone Operators are compliant, responsible, abiding by the law. Of course, all technology can be used for good or bad. Drones are no different. Drones can also be used for harm. The emerging Technology Regulation so has the drone security that behind with regulation. Because of that, the commercial Drone Alliance is on the record of supporting senator peters legislation on counter uas. We promote the extension of which expires next week, october 5th. It would also and hands detection authority. It would also set up a counter uf program with strong federal programming in training. We really see innovation and integrity is two sides of the same coin. We cant have two without one. And stadiums are looking to incorporate drones into their own operations. We 100 agree that it is a very important issue. We look forward to working with you and your staff. Another good ideas as well. And mr. If i might if you could quickly answer if you thank, you i think to add to my colleague leases answer i think that in the world of drones, all drones are identified whether it is remote i. D. Or there are technologies like that to make it quite dangerous. I think it is very important to do. Most cybersecurity issues overall down to the areas of technology or the people using the technology. The Technology Side we need to ensure that drones, cybersecurity, is built into the technology that goes on to the drone. Which is what we do when we build cybersecurity and everything into the avionics of them. I think that those principles have to continue all the way through. Thank you. I want to move on and continues to talk about drones as they relate to infrastructure because whether we are getting drawn to do our deliveries, photography, or anything in between, drones have really proven helpful across a range of Industries Including infrastructure, construction, and inspection. Drones offer contractors and engineers a really efficient and agile way to use this technology to gather data. They can go in and around bridges, small places in infrastructure, this can help accidents or issues earlier. I really thank you for recognizing my recently introduced infrastructure inspection grant act. As part of revelation to create grants for local states, tribal government, to use Drone Technology to be their eyes and visually inspect infrastructure and train employees how to properly use them. We have invested significantly with the bipartisan infrastructure law to prepare and update our nations infrastructure. Miss salmon and then colonel lux, with the backlog of inspections we know the drones can speed up the process, but do you think we need to do to get the workforce, the drone force, if you will up to speed . It is critically important we can use this and save lives, i believe. Doing that maintenance fast and. So miss element, you go first and then colonel lux. Absolutely, founded a rose man. Thank you for your than a ship, senator blumenthal for including the drug act in the senate. Bipartisan resolution, we are strongly supporting it. As you mentioned there is a backlog of Critical Infrastructure inspection. Drones can certainly help clear that backlog more quickly and more safely. The dig act is a good start in terms of how you move all that forward. Investing funds in moving into a work of tomorrow, as well as in enabling states and localities to actually invest in the technology themselves. We are strongly supportive of it. I think we also need to look at the rules, however, many of these long linear infrastructures require flights to be on site, theres still no broad rulemaking that enables that here in the United States. To really move this forward long term and be able to scale these operations we need to implement them beyond the vigil a lot of sight to create recommendations as well. Thank you. Senator rosen, thank you. Thank you for the support on the bill. The regulation needs study on how to get these things in place. The good news is we are already working on looking at areas called shielding. Right away rolls to support beyond visual line inside operation for inspections. Already efforts are moving forward at least in the faa to start getting this to happen. Thank you. I appreciate, chairman. I will take one second a personal preference. My late father law, who i love duly, was a bridge inspector for the city of los angeles for over 50 years. He would have been so excited to use these drones as he did his work. I think about him today and the technology that we are going to use to continue to work on this. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you senator rosen. Senator thune you are recognized for five minutes. Thank, you madam chair. The title can the las vegas aces after they hired a south dakota native, becky hammond, to be their coach. While, we appreciate it. Thank you for letting us have her. We are gonna keep or if you dont mind, senator soon. Yeah, i dont blame. You [laughs] during my time as chairman in the committee that was considered the fa reauthorization act which included substantial authorities for the fha to modernize National Airspace systems and better comedy new entrance. Since that time the agency has moved forward with several significant actions including rules governing mode identification and or older people and Unmanned Aircraft systems. However, significant work remains to ensure that the uae have another circle integration including a generalized process for tight certification and mobility aircraft consistent Regulatory Framework for beyond visual light of site operations and clear rules to ensure safe interactions with manned aircraft. As this committee begins consideration of the faa we begin authorizations looking forward to these authorizations we appreciate hearing from you want today gentlemen from april of this year i sent a letter from dinner warrant, acton mr. Nolan acting in a situation on the faa progress on development of the standards of development. I believe that the uas conducting complex operations in the mask will deliver a clear commercial and societal benefits and keep the United States at the forefront of safety and innovation. Do you believe that developing general standards for you last time is a important component of advancing uas collaboration . Senator, thank you so much for that question. Absolutely we so much agree. The process we have been talking of the benefit of commercial drones but really to take advantage of the benefits of commercial drones, we need to be able to scale drone operation. One way to do that is too tight certification. To date, we have had several drone manufacturers working for several years handinhand closely with the faa trying to get tight certification. We have had some good news if you months ago matter not the First Company to get their drone to delegation approved by the faa. Now there has been one company being approved, we very much hope to see many others who have been working with the faa for several years on this progress. We also believe that now is a good time to think about how to streamline and improve this process it was meant to take six months, it is not well design. For years and for months i believe is how long to get mad at their certification by that time how many new iterations of technology is moving too quickly forward. We need a process that is designed and tailored for this new industry which are designed differently. We very much appreciate your leadership on that we have our own air proposals and ideas that we would be very excited to sit down with you and your staff to discuss. Mr. Bolton in your testimony also described challenges for am aircraft. Do you believe development of general standards would also be useful and fostering integration in am aircraft . Absolutely. As well, we talked about the importance of predictability, certainty, there is an enormous amount of investment being made to try to bring these products to the market. Understanding of Clear Pathways, a type certificate, and production certificate, being able to begin these operations there are very important for us to know what to expect as we prepare. The clear were the path, the better opportunity we have to arrive at our gift nations. Thank you, colonel lux, i would be very interested in ways to improve automated asked aircraft management especially as map becomes more crowded. This includes a bill, the Dynamic Airspace Pilot Program act which i introduced along with chair and senator sinema to improve Dynamic Management of the mass. What can this Committee Due to build on the work that the faa to improve these automation tools and reduce the burden of increased traffic on controllers and adapt concepts such as adapted airspace or financial airspace . Thank you senator thune for that question. Nasa has really done groundbreaking effort and work in this area to move forward we need to create a bridge from that nasa work into the actual regulatory requirement. How do you change all the technology, all the answers that nasa has provided into the regulatory structure at least below 500 feet . You t m is critical and its absolutely going to be the backbone to deal with all of the increased activity and small uas operating beyond visual line of sight below that for 500 feet. I would say that that would need to be part of the reauthorization act, to establish the Regulatory Framework and support edm Going Forward. Hopefully it will be part of the realist authorization, thank you. Chair thank you senator thune, recognize cher cantwell for five minutes. Mr. Davis, i want to congratulate you again on yesterday and the flight of alice. Very exciting news [inaudible] main comment to earlier. This is no small achievement. I know the work has been ongoing by you in many others. Again, congratulations on your efforts to decarbonize aviation and have electric planes. I wanted to follow up on your comments and maybe tie and mr. Bowland as well. When we look at essential air service and we look at some of our challenges in transportation i understand your current plans, or the idea was originally for a 20 2070. You already have commitments from a regional carrier, and dhl for cargo. What steps does Congress Need to take to continue to look at this issue that you brought up of coordination between the faa and d. O. E. On battery standardization . Thank you very much chair cantwell, and thank you very much for the welcome. It was a very exciting day here at our flight Test Facility not very far from where we flew, im there now. There are many aspects of what we are doing here with electric aircraft broader discussion as well as a specific infrastructure requirements. We talked about the walk, run methodology that we generally accept in aviation. This does not feel like accra before a rock with what we are doing right now. What we are doing is an important step me stone to actually bringing electrified aviation to the marketplace. We are choosing the path of taking an electric conventional takeoff and landing airplane and developing that for electric propulsion and then battery power. What that allows us to do is to leverage the existing aerospace requirements, we take off from an airport. We fly in aerospace, we landed in airport. It allows us to focus on the technology development. The discussion faa we had before with certification a batteries, making sure we are using advanced technology as quickly enough safely as possible to enable the Mission Profiles that we are looking, right now essential air Service Routes that are typically yes internet 50 nautical miles, 300 standard miles and also adapting the advanced technology for the aircraft to allow pilot operation, which is the pathway to this operation for eventually passenger operation. With respect to the d. O. E. And potentially d. O. E. And faa, what we need to do is look at the establishment of the infrastructure. The good news, comparatively, the broader automotive infrastructure is whether those who have had some service or very near larger to the broader 5000 airports. Aviation, unlike an electric car, you want people wherever you want to go when you want to go there. Aviation, we know exactly where we want to inland exactly where we want to. All on schedule. It becomes much easier especially with the essential air service map to develop that infrastructure. What we are looking to do with those customers that you have identified, is building now a Proof Network showing that we can actually operate and go from there. That is definitely on the import side in the aircraft charging signed, the d. O. E. In terms of overall Better Technology will benefit the industry. What about dhl then . We talk about cargo, obviously youre talking about a marketplace of nine passengers or Something Like that . When you talk about cargo, what is the profile there . Thank you for that the cargo emissions are going to be very similar. It is that last hundred Mile Delivery which takes two or three hours of delivery time for the packages that we want to see arriving. Again though it is going to be point to point for the issue will deployment of the aircraft. We will know where the aircraft are intended to go. Seven which airplanes we will be offering from. We will start there and build up the infrastructure. This to me seems like a gamechanger when i think about some of our problems particularly with the airlines and even with the expansion of people are happy to have flights from palm springs, why, in various places. People want flights to spoken. The notion that wall of wall is constantly short changed. It is very big and growing one region of our country but one flight a day or two flights a day, you could change that you could have five or six finds a day. You are changing the dynamics of a rural economy. That could be a very interesting solution for driving efficiencies into the marketplace. Yes, thank you for that. Certainly with the aircraft for developing and we are seeing the first entrance we will immediately be able to produce less emissions on the same duration of trips as he would in a car. The emissions we produce our during the production of the aircraft and the power that is driven from the energy grid whenever we operate the aircraft. One of the, and i thank you very much for your words on changing the industry, changing the world. That is exactly how we see it. It is a very easy game to play. Where are we right now . Could you find nine or eight other people who want to go two or 300 miles away right now . Those are routes that we will be able to do with aircraft centers and service. Certainly the application and the capability of the technology will allow the roots to expand and only further improve our capability to transform regional air travel. I see my time has expired, madam chair. But your testimony rest misses the increase in is that because of the Global Demand an aviation . Is that where you are getting that . Yes, thank you for that. Absolutely. It is very important to recognize aviation in particular as a global business. Airplanes tend to get around, this actually does present a commercial opportunity that we have to take the leadership and drive standardization and certification across speaking for aviation, we truly feel that we are in a leadership position. We are ahead of certifying and bring in aircraft to market that could fill this role. This is a global problem. Emissions are global emissions. Projections, one country cannot do this on their own. It involves everybody. By working together and establish uncommon standards and removing barriers to bringing these to market will improve our ability to positively change the air. Thank you madam chair. Thank you chair cant. Well senator lee is recognized for five minutes the questions. I have long been concerned on the faa as a regulatory process. The fact they are not keeping pace with modern technology. From supersonic aircraft to launch and reentry space vehicles, the slow process is hindering technology or it is not allowing technology to proceed. Your testimony highlighted how this is limited to space vehicles and supersonics. It covers other areas as well like boat regulations are also being held back by the faa process. You noted that the g. A. O. And the d. O. T. Inspector general, as well as the National Academy of sciences have weighed in on this. They refer to the faas lack of progress in the area, i think the word they used is indefensible. I completely agree i would and i do call it, indefensible. I think congress should address this in next years faa regulation. The park 1 35 process, seems to me expensive and something that probably wasnt intended for drones. Absolutely was not intended for drones. Not designed for drones, not well suited for drones. What do you think about this . Do you think part 1 35 and the process involved in it makes sense for drones . Should we consider a drone specific carriage process that reflects true reality . Thank you for that very important question, senator lee. Absolutely, as i remarked earlier part of the challenge here on the technologies moving so much more quickly than the policy and we are essentially the faa is attempting to fit a square peg into around hole, regulations that were designed for the crude Aviation Industry directly to drones, which do not have people on board, very very different in some ways, closer to kind of like what looks like a cell phone versus a 7 37 absolutely, we need new rules that are drone specific. They line of safety role considered exactly that and looked at it from a regulatory perspective, provided recommendations to the faa on how with a performance space, the faa could deliver an operation. That provides the framework for the faa to use. We would like to see it used expeditiously. It touches on airworthiness, get touched on air space, it touches on the crew and operator qualifications. It provides a roadmap to the faa on how to bring all relevant stakeholders together. With states, localities, and others for recommendations. How we can do that in a way that enables us to i think thats right. And that is the one Thing Holding us back. All the players, you mentioned, already, willing, eager, and able to do this. It is the regulatory chokehold and the fact that we are stuck in this byzantine labyrinth with 1 35 process. It makes absolutely no sense and drives us crazy. There are Public Safety issues, there are quality of life issues, and that could all be threatened. It is relieved significantly by drone delivery. And yet the faa remains stuck in the stone age on this. Its unacceptable. Im also concerned that we risk further delays to the integration of drones. If we dont answer some of the outstanding key questions regarding the scope of federal preemption at the state level. For example, the national and i am quoting here. Does the faa have the authority how will property rights, nuisance claims, and area law traditionally within state powers be affected by Drone Operations . And what is the scope of civil and criminal trespass authority on low altitude airspace . The g. A. O. Addressing some of these topics in a 2020 report concluded as follows. The legal uncertainties running these and other issues, presenting challenges to integration of uas interNational Airspace systems. This may improve balancing the social and economic benefits. With constitutional, protected property and privacy rights. With the constitutionally reserve regulation powers. Do you agree with the g. A. O. s assessment here, that the successful integration will likely require balancing of the state and local electorates . Thank you for that question, senator lee. They have an incredibly Important Role to play in integration and i would like this to be a successful program, such as the beyond program as an example where industry worked closely with states and localities to move innovation forward. Together with the federal government. From our perspective, it is important that d. C. Remains the faa that they speak with one voice there. It would be very difficult for companies to scale, and we want to be able to scale in a way that we are able to take advantage of all these benefits. But that said, of course states in localities of the Critical Role to play. I would also point you to section 209 of the 2016 act that is not yet implemented by the faa. That section would give the f or youth order to establish six site facilities to declare themselves no drone zones, limit or prohibit drone sites on property. Which would take care of a lot of those concerns, so we would ask the faa to implement these, and we will be very excited to work with you and your staff and many of our members are doing lots in their communities. I would point, for example, one of our members zip lined. And doing lots of stuff in their communities, and that is true across the board. Its absolutely critical that we have a great working relationship with towns and communities where we operate. Okay. So we still do need to know the scope of preemption, we need to know the nature and extent of the limit on federal authorities here. A lot of these programs werent designed with an appreciation for on the ground realities for specifics that are very different. Were not in the realm of United States which contemplates traditional airplanes, aircraft involving humans in addition to any other cargo. This is very, very different. A drone, which can fly down two inches above the blades of grass on somebodys lawn, can fly right up to and against, in theory, into somebodys window. It prevents some things that are very obviously within the domain of state and local authority. Nuisance law, laws prohibiting voyeurism if we cant get this right, if we cant grasp the nature of the faas grant while acknowledging that you cant preempt all of this, we dont get that ironed out quickly. We are going to be in bad shape. We would welcome the opportunity to work with you and your staff on this very complex topic, absolutely. And i know youd be willing to help us delineate what that should be . Were happy to help, but this. Thank you. Thank, you madam chair. Thank you, senator lane. With, that we reached the end of todays hearing. Thank you to all of the witnesses for your time and testimony. The hearing record will remain open for four weeks until october 26th, 2022. Any senators i would like to submit questions to the record should do so two weeks from now. I asked that witness a response turn to the committee. That concludes todays hearing