TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue hope to land the next generation of air transport companies at a testing facility in Central Florida.
Perdue for years has championed advanced air mobility, which would involve establishing "vertiports" in urban areas that could serve as hubs for short aerial commutes by battery-powered aircraft that have characteristics of airplanes and helicopters.
DeSantis recently saying he was “mildly excited” about the effort to reduce congestion along the I-4 corridor, Florida will first try to attract the growing technology to Polk County.
While few details were released, DeSantis and Perdue on Thursday announced plans for an aerial test bed at the department’s SunTrax facility in Polk County.
The test facility will include two vertiports, which are take-off and landing sites for primarily electric vertical take-off and landing, “VTOL,” aircraft.
“The idea would be, if they could do this to scale, if they can make it economical, it would take some traffic off the roads, because people, they could cycle through with travelers on doing that. So we're just trying to have as many options as possible,” DeSantis said during an announcement that was focused on new express lanes on I-4 in Hillsborough County and a truck parking facility along I-4 in Polk County.
Once green-lighted from the federal government, the VTOLs would be expected to provide short air transport “like an Uber” and potentially draw investments from deep-pocketed “Wall Street guys,” according to the governor.
“It's not going to go from Miami to Jacksonville or Miami to Pensacola,” DeSantis said “It's really within that 60 miles. And in areas where there is traffic, where you want to get from maybe one urban center to the next, it makes a lot of sense.”
The test facility will help the private sector quickly advance into the “age of flying cars” in Florida, Perdue added.
Perdue and DeSantis saw prototypes of the VTOLs in June at the Paris Air Show, an international aerospace trade fair and air show. Perdue said that some of the prototypes are expected to get federal approval in 2026 for supervised trials.
“How can we support the private sector being successful? Speed to market,” Perdue said. “You cut through the red tape. You give them the ability to start operating and operating quickly and become profitable. And this will be a new opportunity for Florida residents. So this is our goal.”
Perdue earlier this year encouraged lawmakers to support the establishment of vertiports in urban areas that could serve as hubs for short aerial commutes by battery-powered aircraft that have characteristics of airplanes and helicopters.
“So, you can think about movies that you've seen that are science fiction. The Jetsons, yeah, is one of those … that's a classic. This is actually becoming a reality,” Perdue told members of the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee in February.
The Paris Air Show elevated DeSantis’ support in the high-tech transport from “mildly interested” to “mildly excited,” the governor said Thursday.
“I mean, I do have questions too. But I think what we're doing makes a lot of sense, because, to the extent the industry has the ability to innovate, they're going to want to do that in conjunction with SunTrax,” DeSantis said.
While attending the air show, DeSantis signed a wide-ranging transportation package (SB 1662) that in part required the transportation department to develop a plan for advanced air mobility with the Department of Commerce. The law also required advances in aviation technology to be included into the annual transportation work program.
The joint department plan also is aimed at identifying “corridors of need and opportunities for industry growth.”
In September, the Federal Aviation Administration launched a pilot program to advance the approval of air taxis that will involve at least five public-private partnerships with state and local governments to promote safe usage of VTOL aircraft.
Facing industry pressure, the FAA in January updated guidelines for the design of vertiport facilities, in part putting them in the existing category of heliports. A year ago, the FAA issued a final rule for qualifications and training of advanced air mobility instructors and pilots.
Attempts to establish regulations and oversight of the industry have struggled to gain traction in the Florida Legislature over the past few years. Lawmakers in 2024 allowed the state Department of Commerce to consider applications for money under a new Supply Chain Innovation Grant Program for efforts to develop vertiports.
