[coderenegade]

eVTOLs are powered lift aircraft, though, so this is moving to certify them under the correct specification. This is a good thing as far as I can see, because the FAA's job isn't to make life easy for innovators, it's to ensure that the technology is safe for everyday use. And quite frankly, that's how it should be; the FAA is the defacto standard for aviation regulation, and I wouldn't want to fly on anything that was incapable of meeting FAA standards. The 737 max fiasco was a major blow to the organization's reputation, and this is a good sign that they're taking their job seriously again, because people died.

The real question should be why they were initially going to certify eVTOLs as light aircraft. That just seems like the entirely wrong category for them.

[sokoloff]

It's not at all clear to me that the FAA was originally going to certify them under those rules. Note the carefully worded text here:

> developers of winged eVTOL aircraft including Joby Aviation, Archer and Beta Technologies have been proceeding on the assumption that their aircraft would be certified under the FAA’s overhaul of small airplane certification rules that took effect in 2017.

"developers...have been proceeding under the assumption" is doing an awful lot of work in that sentence...

[Ekaros]

Also I don't want anything not properly certified and verified to fly above me. Specially VTOL type crafts. At least with regular planes they have glide characteristics and are not aimed to operate regularly in urban areas outside airports.