By: Dawn Zoldi
Cape May County stands ready for UAS testing activity. Drones can fly in corridors over wetlands. Operators have access to diverse terrain. Aviation officials continue to map both the air and ground for what comes next. (See prior AG coverage of the Cape-Atlantic Test Range). In this context, the Shore to Soar (S2S) conference recently gathered in this southern New Jersey peninsula to wrestle with the question as to who actually makes Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) happen on the ground?
The answer, according to the panelists assembled for "The Importance of State and Local Government in the Realization of Advanced Air Mobility," is the state departments of transportation, county economic development offices and local municipalities who get engaged early, who have clarity of purpose and a plan that can outlast any single election. Without these key players, AAM risks becoming just another promising aviation concept stranded on the tarmac. Here is the checklist these experts outlined, for AAM success at the local level.
Start With the Need, Not the Technology
Moderator David Heath, Principal at BBP Solutions, opened the discussion by directing the first question to John Eberhardt, Managing Director at ATA Aviation: what support do states and localities most need to provide to make AAM feasible? Eberhardt, who described himself as a "data plumber," said, "The number one thing that state and local governments could do for industry is identification of demand. He continued, "A lot of AAM is being driven by industry and people that have cool stuff. But in the end, it has to support a real-world need. If you can identify that, if you can qualify it, then you can figure out how to make it financially viable. Everything else is actually pretty straightforward."
That exchange set the tone for the entire session. Community needs must come first and well before investments, regulatory approvals or building infrastructure. Eberhardt warned that communities routinely make the same mistake. They spend money on facilities and test infrastructure before identifying what those assets are actually for. "It’s much easier to build to somebody’s requirements than it is to try and find someone to fit the thing you made," he noted.
For communities operating on tight budgets, he offered practical low-cost entry points. First responder drone programs can be launched for under $100,000 with annual operating costs below $20,000. Medical logistics represents another high-promise use case, particularly given growing rural healthcare access challenges. And mapping local airspace, such as where fuel storage tanks sit, schools are located or flight paths cross populated areas, is essentially free, he said. It requires only coordination with the local government and the willingness to publish that information so operators can use it. "It doesn’t cost a lot to invite industry into your living room and find out what they need," Eberhardt noted.
Plan for Multi-Modal; Integrate Early and Often
Kimbrali Davis of the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Office of Aeronautics acknowledged that state transportation agencies face a real urgency to build policy frameworks. Her approach focuses on planning for pain points before they hit.
New Jersey’s diversity of geography and population density makes uniform statewide policy an impossible fit. The congested Hudson corridor airspace bears no resemblance to the sparse rural counties in South Jersey. Davis emphasized that the state’s approach must account for those distinctions. She works from a comprehensive aviation strategic plan that brings stakeholders together from across the urban-suburban-rural spectrum.
Davis also highlighted the value of existing infrastructure. "You don’t always need to create a brand-new facility," she noted. "You can modify it. You can collaborate. If I have a helipad, I can work with operators to figure out how to also license it as a vertiport."
Her broader argument focused on integration. AAM must not become siloed from the twelve-year surface transportation plans, the highway and bridge programs or the transit networks already in motion. Drawing on her background managing light rail and fixed-dial transit programs (“planes, trains, buses and drones”), Davis painted a picture of genuine multimodal connectivity. A passenger catching a flight from Trenton-Mercer Airport via a light rail connection from a nearby heavy rail station, fed by an air mobility leg from the starting point. "We haven’t come down together," she said of transportation modes that too often meet separately. "Aviation meets here, maritime meets there. We need to eliminate the one-offs."
Earn Community Trust
Alice Griffith, Senior Director of State and Commercial Aviation at Crown Consulting, Inc., took direct aim at perhaps the most discussed, but also perhaps most underestimated, challenge in AAM, public acceptance. When Heath asked how community acceptance would shape deployment timelines and what local leaders should do now, Griffith said, "Community is the hardest piece of the puzzle. Each community really needs to focus on what is unique to them and what matters to them."
She pointed to a wave of federal programs now channeling funding toward state and local implementation, from drone infrastructure grants to rural health transformation funding, and stressed that local leaders need to get ahead of that funding stream rather than react to it. The key, she argued, is transparency to the public. Make visible what aviation activity is already happening in communities, so residents can develop informed perspectives, rather than reflexive opposition.
The noise concern also follows AAM wherever it goes. Despite this, Griffith noted real grounds for optimism. Many eVTOL designs operate at significantly lower decibel levels than the helicopters they may eventually replace in urban corridors. And deployment patterns for most near-term use cases (think: medical logistics, infrastructure inspection, package delivery) tend to operate from discrete hubs rather than flying low through neighborhoods. "I don’t really see a world where we have that much disruption," she said. "I think people just don’t even really know how much activity is going on today." She closed with the recommendation to get local airports involved in community outreach. Start by familiarizing residents with aviation itself before asking them to embrace the next generation of it.
Turn Weakness Into a Strength
Joe Molineaux, Director of Economic Development for Cape May County and a co-architect of the S2S initiative itself, offered a candid assessment of what it takes for a local government to position itself for AAM opportunity. It sometimes involves turning perceived limitations into strengths.
"When I looked around, I found this terrible stat,” he said. “Of the total land we can develop here in Cape May County, only 11% can be developed, and 9% is already developed.” That constraint, he explained, sparked a counterintuitive insight. The county’s limitation in the form of sparse development, surrounding water and seasonal dormancy, became its aviation testing advantage. Sparse development means fewer homes beneath flight corridors. Water surrounds mean maritime and coastal testing scenarios. Seasonal quiet periods mean operators can access facilities and local hospitality without competing with peak summer tourism, at cheaper rates.
With that mindset, Molineaux now aims, in the short term, to attract a consistent flow of testing activity that generates relationships, investment conversations and eventually a permanent footprint for companies who come to test and decide to stay. "If you’re not involved, you’re going to get left behind," he said. "This is coming."
Bridge the Tech-Policy Speed Gap
Anthony McCloskey, Bureau Director of Aviation at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, addressed the central gap for state governments in AAM. Innovation moves fast, compared to slow government processes and responses.
He described the experience of walking into planning meetings to advocate for AAM funding and finding agency colleagues who had never heard of drones, let alone electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The procurement layers (think: solicitor review, general counsel, attorney general’s office) can also feel paralyzing when an industry is moving at the pace of aviation software development. He prescribed establishing a formal interagency task force with representation from transportation, community and economic development, education and labor, then reporting to the governor’s desk with presentations to the House and Senate transportation committees.
Pennsylvania’s sheer scale (over 2,500 municipalities, roughly 1,600 without their own government) demands a convening structure that can aggregate local voices and translate them into coherent state action. "Once we have a few demonstrations in this state and say, ‘Hey, this is what this can do for you,’ I think that acceptance grows," McCloskey said. "Safety first. But how did you get your medication today? Did you have to drive? Did you take transit?"
The Most Important Government Roles in AAM
Heath closed the session asking for one thought from each panelist on the most important role of government in realizing AAM.
* Eberhardt footstomped solving real needs. “Make sure that the investments we are making solve a real-world compelling need. If you can do that, everything else is relatively easy,” he said.
* Davis called it planning, the disciplined act of bringing the right stakeholders to a single table and holding them there.
* Griffith pointed to the state’s role in equitable transportation for the community to ensure AAM delivers public benefit across income levels and geographies.
* Molineaux said it comes down to setting the table correctly so everyone can eat, establishing the conditions, the rules, and the tone that allow industry to move.
* McCloskey landed on workforce development. Ensure AAM’s economic contribution shows up not just in new companies but in the expanded skill sets of construction workers, utility crews, and first responders who add aerial capabilities to their existing roles.
The message that threaded through every answer, though, was the same one that brought this particular group to a conference center on a New Jersey peninsula. Community need must drive everything and the government’s job is to find it, name it, and build toward it.