Advanced Air Mobility Initiative

Advanced Air Mobility Initiative is sponsored by Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). A statewide strategy to scale Michigan’s advanced air mobility capabilities, ensuring safe and efficient integration of drone technologies.

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Advanced Air Mobility Initiative On July 17, 2025, Michigan established the Michigan Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Initiative as a whole-of-government strategy to scale Michigan’s AAM capabilities, ensure safe and efficient integration of these technologies across public and private sectors, and position our workforce, manufacturers, and infrastructure as national assets in the deployment of AAM technologies.

This Initiative will support the Unleashing American Drone Dominance Executive Federal Orders from June of 2025. {{modalSelected. partnerDesc}} {{modalSelected.

partnerName}} {{modalSelected. partnerLinkText}} Executive Directive 2025-4 Establishing the Michigan Advanced Air Mobility Initiative Michigan is mobilizing its industrial base, including manufacturing, engineering, and logistics infrastructure, to accelerate the full lifecycle of next-generation drone technologies.

This includes building, testing, commercializing, and scaling - aligned with our competitive advantages within and adjacent to our core industrial base.

Michigan Deploys More Than $40M to Accelerate Advanced Air Mobility The Michigan Office of Future Mobility and Electrification released the inaugural Advanced Air Mobility annual report, highlighting considerable momentum toward its effort to build the nation’s most comprehensive, equitable, and competitive aerial mobility ecosystem.

The report finds that Michigan steered over $42 million in public and private sector investment toward AAM-related initiatives in 2025, attracting cutting-edge innovation to the state and laying the groundwork to support new opportunities for Michiganders.

Created to accelerate the development of AAM technologies and infrastructure in Michigan, this fund aims to create a pipeline of projects that have the potential to validate technical and economic feasibility and critical data.

Established to help Michigan-based manufacturers grow and adapt to industry shifts by providing access to business advising, responsible funding, events and courses, and a wide range of partner resources and programs. Early stage funding is critical to the success of startup companies and entrepreneurs.

Through a number of programs, MEDC’s Entrepreneurial & Innovation initiative is here to help you find the early stage funding needed. AAM Statewide Mobility Challenges Michigan launched a series of challenge-based pilot programs to advance the integration of drones for solving real-world government agency problems.

Learn more about Executive Directive 2025-4 : Establishing the Michigan Advanced Air Mobility Initiative and Unleashing American Drone Dominance Executive Federal Orders Mobility Prototyping Grant The grant program provides technical services and financial support to companies working across all modes of mobility — air, ground, and sea — with a focus on uncrewed autonomous systems, critical domestic supply chain gaps, and other breakthrough mobility innovations.

We're here to help connect your company to Michigan manufacturers and startups that can support your production needs and/or investment interests. Get started → AAM News & Success Stories Lt. Governor Gilchrist Announces Over $6 Million to Four Projects Furthering the State’s Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) Leadership Today, Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist announced that four projects will receive $6.

25 million in total funding to scale critical AAM infrastructure and deploy pilots that will generate operational data to validate the commercial potential of key AAM use cases and help inform the state’s AAM policy.

Michigan Hosts First-of-its-Kind Drone Race The 2025 Uncrewed Triple Challenge brought competing teams from eight states and three countries to test their unmanned technologies in the National All-Domain Warfighting Center.

Governor Whitmer Signs Executive Directive to Create the Advanced Air Mobility Initiative, Supporting Good-Paying Jobs Across Michigan Funding coincides with Gov. Whitmer’s executive directive to advance the testing, production and integration of uncrewed aircraft systems technologies M-Air and the 40-mile-long airspace for testing drones & electric-powered aircraft in SE Michigan A 40-mile airspace from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI to ‪@michigancentraldetroit‬ is being established for testing drones and electric-powered aircraft.

This corridor is part of the newly-formed M-Air, which will utilize the advanced autonomous vehicle testbed, Mcity, to further research and development of beyond-line-of-sight drone operation.

First Electric Aircraft Charger in Michigan Unveiled at Capital Region Airport Electric aircraft from Beta deemed the ‘future of aviation’ during display in Lansing Blueflite Makes Waves in Mobility Logistics Blueflite is a cargo drone OEM headquartered in Brighton, Michigan. Through the Make It in Michigan Prototyping Grant Program , it fast-tracked development of its advanced drone platform for last-mile delivery.

Now, Blueflite is helping shape the future of mobility logistics. Airspace Link is Leading the Way in Geospacial Technology Based in Newlab at Michigan Central, Airspace Link is changing the game for drone technology.

Michigan's AAM Innovation Assets Advanced Aerial Innovation Region Michigan Central and MDOT created the Advanced Aerial Innovation Region (AAIR) to accelerate commercial drone development and position Michigan as a leader in next-generation aerial mobility.

A flight corridor for testing drones and electric aircraft will link the University of Michigan’s one-of-a-kind autonomy research facilities in Ann Arbor to Michigan Central’s real-world, urban testbed in Detroit. The roughly 40-mile research skyway will be the centerpiece of the new public-private partnership for advanced air mobility.

National All-Domain Warfighting Center The NADWC includes the nearly 148,000 acres of training space at the Camp Grayling Maneuver Training Center and 17,000 square miles of special use military airspace at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. The arena provides units with training capabilities across all five warfighting domains.

NorthSky Uncrewed Innovation Zone The NorthSky Uncrewed Innovation Zone is northern Michigan’s hub for Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS), Uncrewed Marine Systems (UMS), and Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) innovation, commercialization, and workforce development.

The region has secured over $30 million in state and federal funding to support initiatives that demonstrate the real-world value of marine technology and uncrewed systems across healthcare, infrastructure, and environmental sectors. Gerald R. Ford International Airport’s FLITE Ford Launchpad for Innovation Technologies and Entrepreneurship (FLITE) at Gerald R.

Ford International Airport is a pioneering initiative offering grants and pilot-testing for emerging air travel technologies. In collaboration with MEDC, Seamless Ventures, Southwest Airlines®, and West Michigan Aviation Academy, FLITE supports innovation in a live airport environment.

Michigan Unmanned Aerial Systems Consortium Discover the Michigan Unmanned Aerial Systems Consortium (MUASC) at Alpena County Regional Airport, offering 11,000 square miles of dedicated airspace for UAS testing and development. Partnered with Griffiss FAA Test Site, MUASC provides prioritized FAA approvals and extensive R&D opportunities for commercial UAS manufacturers and operators.

Battle Creek Unlimited (BCU) is spearheading the creation of MICH-AIR, an advanced air mobility park at the Battle Creek Executive Airport (BTL).

MICH-AIR is being positioned to serve multiple functions including a manufacturing site for large drones, a center for large drone operations (e.g. cargo terminal, freight delivery, surveillance, or firefighting), a hub for drone maintenance and repair, a location for training drone pilots, and a terminal for urban air mobility.

Michigan's AAM Resources and Assets OFME is leading a statewide strategy to build up Michigan’s AAM capabilities. This plan will focus on safely integrating drones in both the public and private sectors, while also preparing our workforce, manufacturers, and infrastructure to support this new technology.

Michigan is positioned to lead the charge by building a strong and secure drone sector in the U.S. by our manufacturing abilities, skilled engineering talent, and our statewide assets to build, test, and implement AAM technologies at scale. Contact Us to Launch your Big Idea Thanks for filling out our form!