WMPO receives grant for advanced air mobility planning

WILMINGTON — The North Carolina Department of Transportation Division of Aviation has awarded a little more than $800,000 to the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to help develop long-term advanced air mobility transportation.

Advanced air mobility is an emerging sector of the aviation industry with the goral of improving the transport of goods and, eventually, people with new types of aircraft. These include drone-based delivery systems and electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. These new vehicles could be used to transport medical supplies during disaster response, inspect infrastructure, deliver cargo, or serve as air taxis in the future.

As reported by Port City Daily, the WMPO applied for the advanced air mobility grant back in June.

READ MORE: ‘Jetsons coming to life’: WMPO wants in on state’s air taxi funding

Several North Carolina cities are already participating in NCDOT’s first round of its advanced air mobility program, including the City of Greensboro, Town of Cary, the Capital area’s MPO, the Mid-Carolina Council of Governments and Forsyth County. 

The second round of funding includes the WMPO and three other planning organizations: the French Broad River MPO, the Northwest Piedmont RPO and Southwestern RPO (in partnership with Foothills RPO and Land of Sky RPO).

NCDOT’s focus on advanced air mobility follows a promotion from the Federal Aviation Administration. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announcing a new pilot program in September 2025 to accelerate the deployment of advanced air mobility vehicles. The pilot’s goal is to build public-private partnerships with state and local government entities, along with private sector companies like Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation and Wisk Aero, to develop new frameworks and regulations for enabling safe operations.

On the statewide level, NCDOT’s Electric Logistics & Integrated Flight Testing, or eLIFT-NC, recently completed the first series of flights for the Federal Aviation Administration’s AAM program.

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