The FAA has released new design guidelines for vertiports, the infrastructure that will support advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft. The design standards will serve as the initial step to provide key information for airport owners, operators and infrastructure developers to begin development of facilities that will support operations of AAM aircraft that are electrically powered and take off and land vertically.

“Our country is stepping into a new era of aviation. These vertiport design standards provide the foundation needed to begin safely building infrastructure in this new era,” says associate administrator for airports Shannetta Griffin PE.

These vertical take off and landing operations will transport passengers or cargo at lower altitudes in rural, urban and suburban areas.

The design standards include critical information that designers and builders will need to follow to allow for safe take offs and landings such as:

- Safety-critical geometry and design elements: Dimensions for vertiport touch down and lift off areas, additional airspace needed for approach and departure paths and load-bearing capacity. In the future the FAA anticipates a high rate of operations at many vertiports.

- Lighting, markings and visual aids: Guidelines that identify the facility as a vertiport. The FAA recommends a new and distinct Vertiport Identification Symbol.

- Charging and electric infrastructure: Initial safety standards and guidelines for batteries and charging equipment that will be central to vertiports.

- On-airport vertiports: Requirements for airports looking to add vertiports to an existing commercial airport, including the distance a vertiport would have to be from a current runway.

- Elevated vertiports: Requirements and guidelines for vertiports that may be on top of existing structures.

This vertiport guidance will be used until performance-based vertiport design guidance is developed.

The final design standards are based on research conducted by the FAA in collaboration with industry partners and feedback from the public. The FAA held a virtual industry day in March to discuss the draft standards it released in early 2022.