A Government Accountability Office report suggests that while some electric aircraft may be almost ready for commercial service, the system is far from ready for them. The report, ordered by Congress and released Wednesday, says a lack of infrastructure and services, regulatory challenges, and various other factors are hurdles to getting the aircraft into service. “Just how close are we to seeing electric aircraft in the friendly skies? In brief, it might be a while,” Aviation Week quoted the report as saying, “Although several manufacturers have made progress toward certification in recent years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not issued a type certification for a manned electric aircraft, and it is not clear how soon such aircraft will be able to commercially operate in the National Airspace System.”
The report looked at the whole gamut of aircraft and services being proposed and said the sheer volume of different equipment and operational scenarios is somewhat overwhelming. Meanwhile, airports, which play a key role in many of those plans, even for aircraft that can take off and land vertically, are waiting to see if this will actually be a thing. “According to FAA, as of December 2025, 47 airports have identified charging stations for electric aircraft in airport plans,” the report says. “The majority of these airports are part of the manufacturer BETA Technologies’ network of charging stations.” The full report is below.
Some real Sherlocks at work.
Some non- GAO peeps said this a decade ago.
Some fuel pumps do not work correctly at some airports. I wonder who will maintain the EV charger at the airport if they cannot maintain the tried and true fuel pumps.
Presumably, charger is a set-it-and-forget-it device, extraordinarily simple to install and maintain (compared to a fuel tank).
As a new EV owner, I wonder why there are so many EV charging stations out of service if they’re “set and forget”. Fortunately I can charge my car at home; not so with my electric airplane, which I don’t have as none will be useful in my remaining life time.
FAA Advisory Circular 21.17-4, dated 07-18-2025, goes a long way in identifying Certification requirements for eVTOL aircraft and systems. Sixty four pages to be exact. But it is a drop in the industry bucket when it comes to matching FAA technical understanding and regulatory development to industry momentum and material advancements. Nonetheless, the real challenge is in practical development.
Just considering the implications of moving from bus configurations transferring 24 VDC systems to those transferring 800-1000 volt pressures is a career study all its own. This will not happen over night.
We know how to build out the “fast charging” infrastructure, correctly and safely. The main roadblock to doing so, even for cars, is the possible ROI for the entity doing the deployment. I suspect this a “chicken & egg” problem with few investors willing to take the plunge at airports when their counterparts have issues with maintenance and cable theft prevention for groups of EV fast chargers now; although the airport located units would be less accessible for vandalism.
BETA Tech’s venture into one of the largest GA markets is indicative of how an aircraft maker will likely be successful. If you want to deploy a fleet of battery-electric aircraft, you must arrange an infrastructure to “fuel” them at diverse locations.
On reason for Tesla’s market penetration is their deployment of SuperChargers to “fuel” the fleet; even with the maintenance & vandalism issues.
It’ll happen in China first. The U.S. is struggling to accomplish anything big anymore.
Too much electric-aviation Kool-Aid.
What we have here is a test article with a charger problem, a battery problem, a fire truck problem, a maintenance problem, and a certification problem. Some of it will work. Much of it will get smaller, slower, narrower, and more expensive before it becomes practical.
Right now, too many people are making “not impossible” sound like “almost certified.”
I agree, but I think solid state batteries are going to be in production cars in 5 years. That’s a game changer. Faster charging, much higher energy density, much lighter.
A little too glossy for me to swallow. An 80% improvement claimed over Li-ion batteries needs to be sustainable over years of use but still falls far short of what would be practical for aircraft propulsion. I think that battery output has reached a plateau even with tweaking in test cell applications and won’t be a meaningful alternative to fossil powered engines for the forseeable future, regardless of how much wishful thinking is directed at it. Better sfc and power could be available with diesel technology when the weight issue and smoother power pulses is achieved using multi-cylinder engines, possibly with spark ignition allowing lower combustion pressures.
And for now, we still have many excellent helicopters that work in much the same way.