Alliance Seeks to Advance AAM/UAM Implementation

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) and The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) have announced a partnership providing the structure for the further development of the emergent Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)/Urban Air Mobility (UAM) sector.

NATA and CNO signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) aimed at maturing AAM/UAM education and adoption with the exchange of expertise and information through committee engagement and collaboration on business, outreach, and event opportunities. This strategic partnership is invaluable in the development of a complex transportation system using innovative aircraft, technologies, infrastructure, and operations to move people and cargo between local, regional, intraregional, and urban locations not previously served or underserved by aviation.

NATA President and CEO Curt Castagna stated: “The future of AAM/UAM is now. NATA members from across all functional areas, including AAM, part 135, FBOs, airports, and MROs, will more quickly gain the guidance needed to support, maintain, and operate the next generation of aircraft through this collaboration. As safety advancements and education are critical to both NATA’s mission and the safe, successful implementation of eVTOL technology, a partnership between NATA and CNO was a natural fit in fostering these pillars across all stages of AAM/UAM development.”

In 2022, NATA formed its AAM Committee for purpose of ensuring the organization’s adoption of a unified approach to the modernizations of both the AAM sector’s infrastructure and operational framework. NATA contends communication, collaboration, and cooperation between government partners and the entirety of aviation industry stakeholders will prove key to creating a healthy and vibrant AAM ecosystem. Moreover, NATA perceives a natural nexus between extant Part 135 operators, general aviation airports, FBO infrastructure, and AAM innovation. Urban and rural general aviation airports offer ideal backdrops against which to introduce electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) technologies. Ergo, NATA members are proactively preparing to support, maintain, and operate such next generation of aircraft.

CNO executive director of advanced technology initiatives James Grimsley will kick off NATA’s November 2023 Aviation Business Conference in Long Beach, California. Mr. Grimsley will discuss the benefits of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and AAM technologies to rural locales, international markets, and the national economy, as well as the means by which the CNO has set out to advance the inchoate market segment.

Grimsley remarked: “The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma looks forward to the many positive societal benefits that will be available as a result of emerging aviation technologies. The relationship with NATA further illustrates CNO’s commitment to being a leader in this exciting growth area.”

Claiming more than two-hundred-thousand members, the Choctaw Nation is the third-largest Indian Nation in the United States. The Nation has been deeply involved in the development of nascent aviation technologies the likes of UAS and AAM. CNO was the first Native American Tribal Government to receive a Public Aircraft Operations Certificate of Authorization from the FAA, and is home to one of eight FAA UAS BEYOND sites selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Launched in October 2020, the FAA’s BEYOND program is a four-year initiative devised to streamline the approval processes germane to drone integration into the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS).

As part of the UAS BEYOND program, CNO has worked closely with the FAA and other agencies to more fully incorporate UAS into the National Airspace System and help deliver the benefits and operational efficiencies ostensibly inherent thereto.

Founded in 1940 to represent the interests of the general aviation business community before the U.S. Congress and federal, state, and local government agencies, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) comprises nearly 3,700 aviation businesses offering a broad range of services to the general aviation and airline industries as well as the U.S. military.

In addition to advocating for the aviation sector, NATA directly serves the traveling public by providing aircraft fuel; on-demand air-charter; aircraft rental, storage, and flight training; aircraft maintenance, parts sales, and line support; as well as business aircraft or fractional ownership fleet management.

FMI: www.nata.aero