The FAA Drafted One Rulebook for Heliports and Vertiports. The Aircraft Did Not Wait for It.

Draft AC 150/5390-4 went out on October 22 and is open for comment until January 11. In the four weeks since Issue 26 the ledger watched Beta shuttle medical cargo between three Utah airports a week before anyone announced it, Archer fly the first observed eVTOL legs in the San Francisco market, and two Beta aircraft meet at Kissimmee, where the inference layer opened situations at 18 hospital pads, sixteen of them with recorded dimensions under the eVTOL pad floor. No score moved. The flight feed behind the ledger lapsed on October 21.

This is the first Pulse in four weeks, and it covers all four. Issue 26 asked where N401NZ would go from Salt Lake City. The answer was nowhere, for eight days: it flew Salt Lake City to Provo and Salt Lake City to Logan over and over, a medical cargo shuttle that Utah coverage picked up on October 7 and Beta's own release, carried on October 13, described after the ledger had recorded most of it. The same month Archer took an aircraft from Salinas through the South Bay to Oakland and back, and on October 20 two Beta aircraft that had crossed the Southeast from opposite directions both landed at Kissimmee Gateway. The FAA's draft arrived two days later. It would replace the heliport circular and the 2024 vertiport engineering brief with one document, and the pads it will govern are already receiving traffic.

What Changed Since Issue 26

Nine developments across four weeks, ranked by what the platform can independently verify. Observed means the aircraft broadcast and the ledger holds the track. Enacted means a signed law on the official record. Published means an audited change to a public record. Proposed means a federal draft open for comment.

One Rulebook, and the Pads It Will Govern

The FAA has published heliport design standards since 1959. The current circular, AC 150/5390-2D, Heliport Design, is dated January 5, 2023. A vertiport has been designed since September 2022 to an engineering brief, EB 105, superseded by EB 105A on December 27, 2024 and written as a supplement to that circular. The draft the FAA released on October 22, AC 150/5390-4, Vertical Flight Aircraft Infrastructure Design, cancels both and folds them into one document, and sorts its text under four labels. A standard is the FAA's design benchmark. A recommended practice is left to the sponsor's discretion. A requirement is an obligation that already exists in statute or regulation, which the circular restates and does not create. A design consideration is a factor that may change how a standard or practice is applied. On what a standard binds, the draft says it does not constitute a regulation and is not legally binding in its own right, then makes its standards mandatory for a project funded under a federal airport grant program or the passenger facility charge, and recommended for everyone else. Two things in the 2023 circular are gone. That circular called itself not mandatory, and it said that states and other authorities with jurisdiction over a heliport built without federal money have discretion in establishing the extent to which these standards apply. Neither sentence appears in the draft. Read together, a standard binds a public use facility that has taken federal airport money. A private use pad built without it sits outside the FAA's enforcement reach under current regulation, and an advisory circular cannot change that on its own. The FAA says the draft does not settle charging classes or connector standards, and that hydrogen guidance will come later. It also lets a powered lift pad be designed to a 15:1 approach surface, flatter than the 8:1 heliport surface, while saying the 8:1 surface is the only one the FAA considers when it evaluates obstructions under Part 77, so an object under a flatter approach is not evaluated or charted by the FAA. A virtual industry day is set for November 10, with questions due November 2. Comments close January 11, 2027, and the FAA says it will publish the final standards in summer 2027.

The pads this will govern are not waiting. The platform's inference layer opens a situation at a hospital pad when observed eVTOL activity arrives within fifteen miles of a pad that holds an FAA airspace determination but records a final approach and takeoff area under the 50 foot floor our rule applies to eVTOL pads. On October 21, the morning after two Beta aircraft landed at Kissimmee, it opened situations at 18 hospital pads in and around the Orlando market, among them AdventHealth Kissimmee, HCA Florida Osceola, Orlando Health St Cloud, Dr P Phillips, the Orlando VA Medical Center, and UCF Lake Nona: sixteen for a recorded pad of 33 to 44 feet, under the floor, and two for a record that may be mislocated. The same rule opened situations at eight pads around Salt Lake City, Provo, and Logan in the first week of October, Primary Children's, Intermountain Medical Center, Alta View, Logan Regional, and Cache Valley Hospital among them, and at four around Oakland and the peninsula in the third week, including UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland and Stanford Health Care East. Thirty four hospital pads hold an open situation under this rule this morning: those 28, and six more near Sanford, Hollister, St Simons Island, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, and Houma.

None of this is a finding that any pad is unsafe, and none of it is a claim that an eVTOL will land at a hospital. It is the record of where traffic has arrived and what the federal record says about the pads nearest to it. The 50 foot floor is the dimensional standard the platform's feasibility model takes from EB 105A, the brief the draft would replace. When the final text is out we will re-read the rule against it and say what changed.

Utah, Announced Afterward

N401NZ reached Salt Lake City on September 30, and Issue 26 said Beta had said nothing about Utah. For the next eight days the aircraft ran a shuttle. On October 1 it flew Salt Lake City to Provo and back, 42 miles each way, then Salt Lake City to Logan, 70 miles. On October 2 it flew Logan to Salt Lake City, out to Provo and back, and out to Logan and back. October 3 and October 4 repeated the pattern, Logan and Provo both. October 5 was Provo only, with two local flights there. On October 8 it flew Logan one more time and then south to Delta, 101 miles, and on October 9 and 10 it worked back to Salt Lake City by way of South Valley Regional. Twenty three cross field legs in Utah in ten days.

Three pairs crossed the two day line. Provo to Salt Lake City carries an identifier as of October 2, eleven legs on six days. Logan to Salt Lake City as of October 3, ten legs on five days. Delta to Salt Lake City as of October 9, two legs on two days nineteen months apart, the first by N916LF in March 2025 and the second by this aircraft. They are the first corridor identifiers in the Salt Lake City market.

The announcement came after. The first Utah coverage of the demonstration in our news record is dated October 7, and Beta's release, carried on October 13, described a five day campaign that ended that day, flying time sensitive medical cargo with Alpine Air Express of Provo under Utah's uFLY project in the FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The ledger had the first leg on September 30 and the shuttle from October 1. Salt Lake City scores 49 and did not move; the observed ledger does not feed the score, and a cargo demonstration is not an operating permission. The ledger next sees N401NZ at Evanston, Wyoming on October 15, and from there it went east: Rock Springs, Rawlins, Laramie, Kimball, Ogallala, Lexington, Grand Island, Beatrice, and St Joseph, Missouri on October 20, one 78 to 107 mile leg at a time. Two of those pairs, Laramie to Rawlins and Kimball to Ogallala, were flown by a different Beta aircraft in October 2025 and now carry identifiers. Where it went after St Joseph the ledger cannot say.

Archer Crossed the Bay

Every Archer flight the ledger had ever recorded was at Salinas, Hollister, or Monterey. On October 13 N703AX flew Salinas to Hollister and on to San Martin. On October 14 it flew San Martin to Reid-Hillview in San Jose, Reid-Hillview to Moffett Federal Airfield, Moffett to Hayward, and Hayward to Oakland, 21, 14, 17, and 7 miles. On October 15 it flew three local flights out of Oakland, which is where Archer's October 19 release puts its flights over the Bay and the ten minute hop to the Marina District. On October 16, 17, and 18 it went home the same way: Oakland to Hayward, Hayward to Moffett, Moffett to Reid-Hillview, Reid-Hillview to San Martin, San Martin to Hollister, Hollister to Salinas.

Oakland, Hayward, Moffett, and Reid-Hillview are the San Francisco market's endpoints in the ledger, and no eVTOL had ever been observed at any of them. Eleven legs touched them in five days. Because the aircraft flew each leg out and back on different days, five pairs crossed the two day line: Hayward to Oakland and Hayward to Moffett on October 17, Moffett to Reid-Hillview on October 18, San Martin to Hollister and San Martin to Reid-Hillview on October 19. San Francisco scores 54 and did not move; it is on developing watch, and its forward signal trend is tagged accelerating this morning, as is Houston's. Archer says Los Angeles is next. Nothing south of Salinas is in the ledger yet.

Two Aircraft at Kissimmee

The Louisiana shuttle Issue 26 reported did not stop; it moved. From October 1 to October 7 N214BT flew Houma to Lafayette and Lafayette to Lake Charles, 91 and 74 miles, eighteen legs on the two pairs in a week, and two more Louisiana pairs took identifiers on October 2, both first flown in August by another Beta aircraft. On October 7 it flew Houma to New Orleans Lakefront, and the ledger next sees it on October 8 flying Montgomery to Auburn, Alabama. On October 15 it went Auburn, Early County, Tallahassee, Valdosta; on October 16 Valdosta, Gainesville, Daytona Beach. Our news record still holds no announcement about Louisiana.

N916LF, the Vermont aircraft, left Burlington on October 6 and came down the Appalachians: Rutland, Westfield, Stewart, Allentown, Lancaster, Hagerstown, Martinsburg, Shenandoah, Greenbrier, Charleston, Blacksburg, Danville, and on October 10 the Raleigh Executive Jetport at Sanford, the North Carolina program's home field. It flew sixteen local flights there over five days, then on October 17 and 18 went south through Rockingham, Columbia, Walterboro, Savannah, and St Simons Island, and on October 19 Jacksonville Craig and New Smyrna Beach.

On October 20 they met. N214BT flew Daytona Beach to Melbourne, Melbourne to Kissimmee, and Kissimmee to Melbourne. N916LF flew New Smyrna Beach to Titusville, Titusville to Melbourne, Melbourne to Kissimmee, and Kissimmee to Melbourne, with two local flights at Kissimmee between. Four legs on the Melbourne to Kissimmee pair, 50 miles, by two aircraft in one day. Kissimmee Gateway is an Orlando market endpoint, and the last observed eVTOL flight there was N916LF's on May 18, during the demonstrations Beta and Signature ran that month. A pair needs a second day for an identifier, and October 21 is the day the feed went dark, so whether it crossed the line we do not know. Orlando scores 64 and did not move. Its watch went to developing on October 21 on news activity, the same day the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority board took up a temporary eVTOL landing pad at Orlando International.

The A250, Authorized and Observed

On October 21 the FAA announced a special airworthiness authorization for Beta's ALIA A250, the vertical takeoff variant, to fly market survey flights: prospective operators and customers aboard, within limits the FAA sets, short of commercial service and short of type certification. It is the first such authorization for an eVTOL. Beta says the first flight under it was October 20, Plattsburgh to Burlington across Lake Champlain, 34 nautical miles in 20 minutes.

The ledger holds that leg. N250XT, registered as an A250, flew Plattsburgh to Burlington on October 20, and had flown the same pair on October 5, with ten local flights at Plattsburgh across October 1, 15, and 19. The Burlington to Plattsburgh pair is the ledger's longest running corridor, 202 legs on 114 days by seven airframes since February 2025. A market survey authorization changes nothing in any market score; it is a certification milestone, and the model records those as forward signals, not current state.

Two State Laws

Ohio HB 251 took effect on October 6, as Issue 26 said it would. Section 4561.01 of the Revised Code now names vertiports alongside airports and landing fields, and section 4561.11 requires a certificate of approval from the Ohio Department of Transportation, on a complete plan of the facility, before a vertiport is used for commercial purposes. Columbus scores 28 and Cincinnati 31; neither moved. A state permitting duty is a regulatory input, and the model counts it when a facility is actually put through it.

Pennsylvania SB 468 passed the House 203 to 0 on September 30, the Senate concurred 49 to 0 on October 7, and the Governor signed it on October 8 as Act 56 of 2026. It lets PennDOT, with the Governor's approval, enter agreements with other states on the research and deployment of unmanned aircraft systems. Our news layer filed it under air mobility; it is a drone law, and Pennsylvania has no tracked market. New Jersey S4640, the heliport zoning bill Issue 26 corrected from law to bill, is still in the Senate Transportation Committee.

Two Corrections

Georgia. Issue 26 said a parsing fix had found enacted state bills recorded as introduced, and that the one market level effect, Georgia, would be reported next. The fix landed with the October 3 refresh of the state legislative trajectories. Forty two bills in ten states that the official record showed as chaptered, signed, or effective had been stored as introduced; they are now enacted. One state trajectory changed: Georgia moved from emerging to advancing on HB 156, enacted in 2025 and effective July 1, 2025. The national legislative momentum input to the Industry Pulse rose from 51.37 to 51.96. No market score changed, Atlanta's included, because the market score does not take that input. The published methodology already said an enacted bill counts as advancing, so the fix restored the method rather than changing it, and no version was bumped.

One prediction resolution. Our operator cadence calls predict how many days each operator will be observed flying in the next 28, and they resolve against the ledger. Beta's steady call was validated four times in four weeks, on October 5, 12, 19, and 27. Archer's calls were wrong three times out of four: the ledger saw more flying days than the slowdown calls allowed. Joby's momentum calls were wrong three times out of four, with fewer days than called. The October 27 resolutions are the problem. Their windows ran past October 20, the last day the feed covered, so days the aircraft may have flown were counted as zero. Beta's validation survives that, because its count was inside the band with a week to spare. Joby's October 27 invalidation, seven days against a call of at least twelve, does not; a week of the window is unobserved. It stays on the record as resolved; we will re-resolve it once the feed is restored and backfilled, and report the result. Archer's October 27 call was invalidated by flying more, not less, and stands.

Observed, Confirmed, Announced

Joby, observed. Thirteen local flights by N541JX and N542JX at Marina on six days between October 1 and October 20. Nothing in Texas since September 13, at Dallas Fort Worth or Alliance, and nothing at Sugar Land since September 7.

Joby, announced for this morning. Joby has invited the public to Albert Whitted Park in St Petersburg at 9:00 ET today for a flight across Tampa Bay to Tampa International, Florida's first under the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, on the route of the first scheduled airline flight in 1914. Tampa's watch moved to developing this morning on the news. The ledger will not hold the flight until the feed is restored.

Beta in Vermont. N336MR, N709JL, and N889CD flew 19 flights between Burlington, Plattsburgh, and Rutland, the home pattern, alongside the A250.

Facilities, validated. Ten construction pressure calls at hospital pads resolved correct in the four weeks, each on a further FAA obstruction case within half a mile after the situation opened: Care Flight in Tampa, Galleria in Marietta, two pads in Scottsdale, UK Hospital and UK Patient Care in Lexington, Strong Memorial in Rochester, Jackson Memorial in Miami, Cross Cut in Tempe, and Holmes Regional in Melbourne. The Lexington pair also validated a newer kind of call, that a permanent structure case would follow a crane case at the same spot: a 120 foot building was filed within 0.05 nautical miles of the crane.

The gate. Thirty two items arrived at the audit gate since Issue 26; five sit there this morning, none at high confidence, and none was published. The month's three most significant tracks, Utah, the Bay, and Kissimmee, were in the ledger before any announcement, and one of them has none.

The Operating Board, Four Weeks

Observed flights cover October 1 through October 20, the last day the feed covered. Everything else runs to this morning. The week Issue 26 reported, September 24 to 30, still reads 60.

The standing caveat applies with more force than usual. Observed flight is a floor, never a census. Experimental aircraft may legally fly without broadcasting, a missing track is recorded as unobserved, never as proof an aircraft did not fly, and from October 21 the floor is zero because the feed is down, not because the aircraft stopped.

Markets to Watch This Week

Top three by predictive significance, from the AirIndex Forward Signals pipeline as of October 30. This ranking leans on the volume of signals a market draws, and volume is attention more than readiness; read the signal counts with that in mind.

See full ranked digest →

What to Watch Next

• The FAA's November 10 industry day on draft AC 150/5390-4, and what the draft's pad dimensions do to the 34 hospital situations above. If the final text moves the floor, our rule moves with it, and we will say so.
• Joby's announced flight across Tampa Bay this morning, and whether a St Petersburg to Tampa pair repeats. The ledger cannot see it until the feed is restored, which is our job, not Joby's.
• Whether Melbourne to Kissimmee ran a second day on October 21, which would mint the Orlando market's first corridor identifier since the May demonstrations; the backfill will answer it.
• Where N401NZ went after St Joseph, Missouri, and whether Archer's Los Angeles leg reaches a Los Angeles market endpoint. Nothing south of Salinas is in the ledger yet.

UAM Market Pulse is a weekly intelligence digest from AirIndex. Observed flights come from the AirIndex eVTOL movement ledger, built on FAA registry data and public ADS-B broadcasts. Forward signals are derived from the AirIndex Forward Signals pipeline aggregating classifier outputs, MarketWatch trajectory, and prediction records. Market scores are published under the AirIndex methodology and change only through the audit gate. Legislative and FAA items are checked against the official record before publication.

AirIndex · UAM Market Readiness Intelligence · airindex.io