• 03 Jul 2025 06:34 AM
• 0

The E-VTOL Flight Test Council: Five Years of Progress

By Al Lawless
Vertiflite, July/August 2025

Anyone associated with VFS knows it is a typical professional society in many ways. It provides venues for practitioners to share experiences, publish papers and network. Extending beyond typical, VFS also boasts a long history of promoting professional development. The Society historically accomplishes this through numerous communities and their initiatives. Being an inclusive organization casting a broad net, VFS also sponsors an independent council focused on flight testing two nascent technologies: electric power and novel vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) — which the council condenses to “verticraft” — configurations. The council published an article the year after it formed (see “The E-VTOL Flight Test Council’s Pioneering Year,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2021), but much has been accomplished since then.

Backstory

Until around 2019, most civil VTOL aircraft were either large, complex, piston- or turbine-powered machines or small hobby-size drones. A few mediumsize drones and even fewer occupied verticraft began flying, but there was effectively no collaboration among their testers. Startup manufacturers typically had little background in flight testing, and many didn’t know about organizations like VFS; although VFS, the Society of Flight Test Engineers (SFTE) and others welcomed technical presentations and papers, there was a recruiting void.

As the SFTE Technical Council Chair at that time, SFTE Fellow Al Lawless saw the dearth of participation among eVTOL testers. However, he determined there was, in fact, a strong desire to collaborate toward developing flighttesting practices for these novel machines. With no such venue existing, but with encouragement from industry and regulators alike, Lawless launched one. Originally scoped just for eVTOL aircraft, charter members quickly expanded to embrace testing of all types of electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, including airplanes and rotorcraft. In July 2020, the group officially became the E-VTOL Flight Test Council (FTC), with the name indicating that both electric and VTOL aircraft were included.

Charter

The council’s mission is to “promote flight test safety, efficiency, and knowledge for electric and verticraft development, certification and qualification.” Its discussions cover all configurations, sizes, classes, payload/passenger combinations and piloting options.

The E-VTOL FTC is an independent volunteer group that enjoys support from multiple sponsors, including VFS and SFTE. The council has no dues or membership requirements and encourages its members to publish with their professional society of choice. VFS sponsors the council by hosting virtual meetings and its ever-expanding library on www.vtol.org/hover. Furthermore, VFS graciously provides access to council members who are not VFS members.

Typical Meetings

The E-VTOL FTC held its first 100 meetings every two weeks; there was so much novelty and churn that a lower frequency could not meet demand. Everyone had questions across the flight-test spectrum. Some members were entirely new to the profession while others knew traditional flight testing but wanted to know the “deltas” appropriate for verticraft and for electric aircraft.

Meetings have a four-part rhythm, beginning with general updates. This covers news within the council’s niche, including relevant press releases and publication announcements. Part two updates recurring topics, such as additions to the council’s digital library, internal and external events and liaisons. Liaisons are members tied to other organizations whose interests overlap the council’s. A paper review completes part two. Each meeting has a young, hard-charging flight test engineer review relevant technical papers and select one to spotlight with a synopsis.

Part three is committee chair briefings on recent deliberations and accomplishments. These focus groups formed naturally upon recognizing specific and recurring interests among some members. All of these groups share the council’s mission to develop and promote best practices for flight testers. The first group to launch was the Electric Flight Test Committee. The fourth was the Automated Flying Qualities Committee, which focuses on ensuring acceptable flight characteristics for wholly automated aircraft (i.e., no inceptors or other provisions for pilot-in-the-loop control modulation). Both committees remain active.

The E-VTOL FTC’s second and third focus groups closed after meeting their deliverable goals. The Handling Qualities Advisory Committee provided an open venue to develop means for showing verticraft compliance with certification rules. With regulator participation throughout, the committee’s final report in May 2024 recommended an approach and lexicon that could equally accommodate aircraft with a pilot in or out of the control loop. The Human Machine Interface Committee formed to bring human factors experts and flight testers together for the ambitious goal of developing a process to certify the coming generation of verticraft and remote ground-control stations. After two years, this effort descoped, providing a compilation of guidance material synopses that was delivered in July 2024.

The climax of most meetings is the featured topic discussed in part four. Members or guest speakers cover the spectrum within the council’s purview, including pilot qualification, aerodynamic modeling, downwash/ outwash, human factors, tech techniques, safety and much more. Guest speakers include researchers from NASA and Canada’s National Research Council (NRC), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), academia and, of course, flight testers sharing lessons. Some topics are extensive enough to own the entire meeting. Some are encore presentations published elsewhere. The council’s library (within the VFS Hover community) posts all session recordings and meeting reports so members can review them anytime.

Accomplishments

Some tangible products include council member papers published by VFS and SFTE:

• “The E-VTOL Flight Test Council’s Pioneering Year”
• “Things Flight Testers Should Know About Batteries for Electric Propulsion”
• “Things Flight Testers Should Know About Electric Engines”
• “Things Flight Testers Should Know About Hydrogen” (a spin-off inspired by the above) 
• “Air Intercept Toolbox” (testing detect and avoid systems for uncrewed aircraft)
• “VTOL Taxonomy and Lexicon”
• “Verticraft Flight Test Challenges”
• Numerous Vertiflite installments addressing VTOL taxonomy and certification challenges (see www.vtol.org/terms)

Other products include advisory reports, comments to regulators and even magazine articles.

• “VTOL Handling Qualities Committee Final Report: HQ Criteria Recommendations”
• Formal comments to the FAA’s proposed PS-AIR 21.17-02 “Special Class Rotorcraft”
• Formal comments to the FAA’s proposed AC 21.17-4 “Type Certification — Powered-Lift”
• Compilation of human factors guidance for flight testers
• A detailed outline on assessing human machine interface (HMI), “The Full Spectrum HMI Concept ”

When specific topics extend beyond the members’ interests, the council works with experts and societies to advertise and produce workshop videos and post them on the VFS website and YouTube (see www.YouTube.com/VTOLsociety). The following are some examples:

• eVTOL Certification 101
• Aviation Battery Performance Modeling
• VTOL Taxonomy and Lexicon
• Managing Range and Endurance of Battery Electric Aircraft
• Outwash Characteristics of VTOL Aircraft
• Vortex Ring State for VTOL Aircraft
• Things Startups Should Know About Certification Flight Test
• Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO)
• Systems Theory Process Analysis (STPA) for Flight Testers
• How X-Plane [Flight Simulator] Can Be Used for eVTOL

A less-tangible accomplishment comes from understanding that, in 2020, regulators only had raw ideas of what would be needed to certify. By participating in our conversations, authorities could informally hear members’ questions and concerns — something that would naturally influence their thinking. In turn, regulators could help guide conversations (again informally) to what they expected would be acceptable approaches. Years of authority participation and positive feedback places the “soft influence” of regular meetings among the council’s enduring accomplishments.

Going Forward

In 2025, the E-VTOL FTC slowed its pace to monthly meetings because the fog lifted on many previously nebulous matters. Authorities have more clarity on how to proceed and the nascent verticraft industry has begun its expected consolidation. Nevertheless, numerous technical topics remain wide open for discussion, and more research data is rolling in. The council will continue its routine and keep pace, as will its subcommittees. The Electric Flight Test Committee meets monthly, with more focus on hybrid- electric aircraft. The Automated Flying Qualities Committee will publish its first technical paper in 2025; included will be a “call to arms” to bring more research into critical areas.

All are welcome to join virtual E-VTOL FTC meetings every first Tuesday of the month at 11:00 am to 12:00 pm Eastern Time (UTC-4 / UTC-5 during the winter months). Learn more at www.vtol.org/ftc.

About the Author

Al Lawless is a flight test subjectmatter expert at Aurora Flight Sciences. He joined Aurora in February 2019 after leading flight test and flight test engineering efforts at Honda Aircraft, Grob Aerospace and Cessna Aircraft. He is an SFTE Fellow and an FAA Designated Engineering Representative (DER).