By Kyle Shelton, CTS director
Advanced air mobility (AAM) is an exciting and quickly changing sector of the transportation industry. The Airport Technical Assistance Program at CTS has been working with MnDOT’s Office of Aeronautics over the past year to offer an AAM webinar series exploring some of the pressing questions and new frontiers in this area for Minnesota and national stakeholders. Among the topics covered in the series are the use of AAM for moving passengers and cargo, the future of sustainably powered aviation, and new propulsion technologies and automation.
In a session held May 15, I joined airport and aviation leaders to explore how AAM and cargo freight will intersect in the future. This freight-focused discussion connects to CTS’s “Unpacking Freight” 2025 thematic focus. The wide-ranging conversation added context and nuance to the topic of the aviation freight system, which CTS previously explored with partners from Bemidji Aviation and the Metropolitan Airports Commission as part of the Center’s Freight 101 series.
In the AAM webinar, Kevin Noertker of Ampaire, Ben Hart of the Utah Inland Port Authority, and Shawn Hall of BETA Technologies discussed the need to create policy and infrastructure networks to enable AAM freight delivery in the near future. Ampaire and BETA are each at the forefront of electrifying aircraft: Ampaire is working to develop and distribute a hybrid fuel system, while BETA is on the path to developing a fully electric aircraft. Both speakers agreed that ensuring adequate charging infrastructure on the ground will be a major challenge. And that’s where airports and groups like the Utah Inland Port Authority come into play. It will be critical for airports to enable the necessary technology and deployment. In Utah, this means prepping for a range of modes and considering how to best leverage AAM for burgeoning freight applications.
Panelists and audience members raised questions about the maintenance and workforce training that would be needed. Noertker and Hall also described what it takes to regulate and ensure the safe operation of new aviation technologies—including details about their multiple cross-country test flights! Finally, they explained how technology use cases differ for freight and delivery but often intersect with other features of AAM, such as vertical takeoff and landing.
All in all, the webinar helped build on the foundation of both the broader AAM series and CTS’s “Unpacking Freight” theme. Check out the webinar recording to learn more.
