Something unusual is happening on the Central Coast this month.
On June 18 and 19, a delegation of Dutch and California policymakers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and innovators will arrive in Santa Cruz and Monterey as part of the California × Netherlands 2026 Exchange — a ten-day working tour across California’s emerging mobility and clean energy ecosystem. And Monterey Bay DART, in partnership with Santa Cruz Works and UC Santa Cruz, will be hosting them right here at home.
This isn’t a ribbon-cutting or a press event. It’s a working exchange: candid conversations, site visits, and relationship-building between people who are trying to solve similar problems on opposite sides of the Atlantic. We’re honored to play a role in bringing that exchange to the Central Coast, and we want to share the context — and the invitation — with our community.
For years, Monterey Bay DART has been building toward a specific vision: a climate-smart , low-altitude economy that is accessible, resilient, and rooted in our region’s communities and landscape. That means drones operating in our agricultural fields and coastal corridors. It means advanced air mobility infrastructure emerging at places like the Marina Municipal Airport. It means local people — students from Hartnell College, veterans from the Naval Postgraduate School and Presidio of Monterey, young people from Seaside — finding real, well-paying careers in aviation and aerospace technology.
What we’ve come to understand, through years of this work, is that no region figures this out alone. The Central Coast’s challenges — workforce gaps, airspace complexity, climate vulnerability, agricultural transformation — are shared by communities around the world. And some of those communities are further along in finding answers.
The Netherlands is one of them.
In August 2025, DART joined a California delegation to the Netherlands to participate in the California–Netherlands Climate & Mobility Innovation Exchange, which culminated in the signing of the Transatlantic Agreement on Air Mobility (2025–2028). That agreement, signed by DART alongside METIP, CCTA, the Electric Flying Connection, and the Coast-to-Coast Foundation (recently expanded to include CAMI and the Netherlands Aerospace Center) , commits partners on both sides of the Atlantic to joint projects, knowledge exchange, and workforce collaboration around advanced air mobility and clean transportation.
In October 2025, the collaboration came home: DART, Joby Aviation, and Airspace Integration hosted a high-level California–Netherlands–EU delegation at Joby’s Marina campus and at Airspace Integration’s coastal test range in La Selva Beach. Participants included representatives from CalSTA, Caltrans, CCTA, TAMC, the European Commission, the Netherlands Consulate, Blue Lake Rancheria, and UC Santa Cruz, alongside counterparts from the Province of North Holland and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
As DART Executive Director Josh Metz put it at the time: “By connecting California’s innovation ecosystem with our Dutch counterparts, we’re moving from dialogue to action — building the shared infrastructure, workforce, and governance models needed for a climate-smart, inclusive future of flight.”
The June 2026 exchange is the next chapter in that relationship. The Dutch delegation will spend ten days traveling across California — from Sacramento policy briefings, to Bay Area innovation hubs, before arriving here on the Central Coast – then on to Southern California’s industry and infrastructure scale.
The June 18–19 stops in Santa Cruz and Monterey are designed around one of the questions the exchange is built on: what does it actually take to move from pilot project to deployment?
The Central Coast is a compelling place to explore that question. It’s where Joby Aviation is building the next generation of electric aircraft. It’s where Airspace Integration is developing real-world drone corridor infrastructure. It’s where DART and a broad set of industry, community and institutional partners — have been working to demonstrate that low-altitude operations can scale responsibly in complex, real-world environments. And increasingly, it’s where the workforce of the future low-altitude economy is being trained.
These visits, organized in partnership with Santa Cruz Works and UC Santa Cruz, will give the delegation firsthand exposure to the ecosystem DART and its partners are building here — and open a genuine dialogue about what the Netherlands and California can learn from each other.
One of the threads we’re most excited to bring into this conversation is our work on workforce development — specifically the MsUAS Pathways Project and its partnership with the UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER).
Launched this spring with support from the James Irvine Foundation, MsUAS Pathways is DART’s two-year initiative — implemented in partnership with Hartnell College — to connect people across Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties to real careers in drones and aerospace technology. The program aims to serve 150 participants, prepare at least 50 for FAA Part 107 commercial drone certification, and open credible pathways for people who’ve never seen themselves in this industry: farmworker families, first-generation college students, Seaside youth, military veterans.
What makes MsUAS Pathways especially meaningful is the ecosystem it’s part of.
Through a recently updated Memorandum of Understanding, DART and CITRIS Aviation have formalized how our workforce efforts work together as a unified regional strategy. The principle is simple: one regional sUAS ecosystem, two complementary investment strategies.
UC Santa Cruz CIDER’s Drones Uplifting the Central Coast (DUCC) initiative — funded by California Jobs First with nearly $3 million — provides statewide stewardship of FAA Part 107 curriculum, instructor training, and delivery coordination, reaching K–12 schools and community colleges across California. CIDER Director Rebecca Fenwick leads that work, with CITRIS Aviation Faculty Director Ricardo SanFelice anchoring the institutional partnership.
MsUAS Pathways, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, brings that curriculum into real classrooms on the Central Coast: supporting faculty at Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College, building adult learner pathways, and creating the kind of community-embedded implementation that a statewide program can’t always reach. Led by DART Project Lead Peter Church — a former Navy H-60 Seahawk pilot and Joby Aviation training developer — the program is designed to make sure that when the funnel opens wide, people in our communities can actually move through it.
Together, DUCC and MsUAS Pathways demonstrate something important: that curriculum at scale and community-embedded implementation aren’t competing approaches — they’re the same strategy, executed at different altitudes.
This is also a replicable model. The MOU makes that explicit: UCSC CIDER provides curriculum and coordination capacity, while trusted local partners enable community-embedded implementation. What we’re building in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties can be adapted and adopted in agricultural communities across California — and, potentially, internationally.
The DART–CITRIS relationship is deepening beyond the workforce. DART’s growing collaboration with the CITRIS Aviation program includes engagement with the CITRIS Aviation Prize Competition — a vehicle for connecting student innovation with regional and statewide challenges in the low-altitude economy. DART has been an active and engaged partner for the Aviation Prize for the past 3-years, resulting in increased academic and industry partnerships, and DART securing a key team member, Jordan King, This partnership reflects a broader commitment: to link the research and innovation capacity of UC Santa Cruz with the deployment ecosystem being built on the Central Coast.
The Monterey Bay Tech Hub (MBTH), launched in 2024 by DART, UC Santa Cruz, and the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, is a cross-sector effort advancing regional technology innovation in advanced air mobility, agtech, and marine tech. Anchored by industry leaders, regional airports, higher education institutions, local governments, and community organizations, the effort has already secured over $10 million in investment from California’s Jobs First Program — funding flight test corridors, workforce apprenticeships and curriculum development. Connected through a common mission, these assets are evolving into a regional model that the state and the world can point to — a story we’re bringing to our Dutch partners on June 18 and 19, and one we welcome new partners, funders, students, and community members to join us and help continue to shape.
This is where we extend an invitation to you.
If you’re a student exploring careers in aviation, robotics, or agricultural technology — there’s a pathway being built for you.
If you’re an educator at a Central Coast community college or high school — we want to talk about how to bring drone and aerospace curriculum into your classrooms.
If you’re a regional business, nonprofit, or community organization with a stake in how low-altitude technology develops in our region — the Dutch delegation’s visit is an opportunity to be part of a conversation that is shaping policy and practice in California and across the Atlantic.
If you’re a funder or investor who believes that a clean, accessible, community-rooted aviation economy is worth building — there has never been more momentum behind this work, or more need for the kind of patient, aligned investment that makes it sustainable.
The June 18–19 visits to Santa Cruz and Monterey are part of a larger exchange, but they’re also a moment for our region to show what we’re building — and to hear from international peers who are building something similar. We’d love for you to be part of it.
To learn more or connect about the June 18–19 visits, the MsUAS Pathways Project, or DART’s broader work, reach out at mbdart.org or follow us on LinkedIn and social media for updates.
DART is grateful to our partners at Hartnell College, UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Aviation and CIDER, Santa Cruz Works, the James Irvine Foundation, California Jobs First, and the Coast-to-Coast Foundation for their collaboration and support in making this work possible.
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On May 13, DART Executive Director Josh Metz joined a select gathering of advanced air mobility (AAM) leaders at the Doon Insights AAM Workshop — an invitation-only convening of entrepreneurs, investors, legal strategists, and policy minds shaping the future of the low-altitude economy.
We are grateful to Howard Chao and the entire Doon Insights team for organizing and hosting what proved to be a candid, high-signal conversation across every dimension of the sector — challenges, opportunities, emerging markets, and technologies.
The workshop brought together some of the most experienced voices in AAM — investors who have watched the capital cycle evolve, operators navigating certification and commercialization, legal minds working through the regulatory terrain, and policy thinkers mapping the institutional infrastructure the sector still needs to build. The range of perspectives was genuine, and the conversations were direct.
What stood out: broad recognition that the sector is moving faster than most predicted even two years ago. Aircraft are being certified. Revenue operations are beginning. The technology is arriving.
But a parallel set of questions is arriving with it — and those questions are not primarily technical.
The most underpriced risk in AAM is not technical. It’s social.
DART carried a focused message to the workshop: the variables most likely to compress or extend timelines to scale are community trust, workforce readiness, and local political alignment — not battery chemistry or certification schedules.
These are the risks that don’t show up cleanly in a pro forma. They compound quietly — until they don’t. And unlike technical failures, you cannot iterate your way out of them in a lab.
The good news: there is a model that is working, right now, in Monterey Bay. DART’s programs across workforce development, community education, infrastructure policy, and ecosystem building offer a tested playbook for how operators, investors, and OEMs can close the gap between aircraft capability and community readiness.
Open Doors Build Trust. Joby’s sustained community engagement at Marina Municipal Airport — an active public GA facility — demonstrates what transparency in practice looks like. Regular events, real engineers, direct answers to hard questions about noise and safety. That is not a PR program. It is a sustained practice that converts skeptics into stakeholders. You cannot buy that outcome; you have to earn it repeatedly over time.
Workforce Pipelines Are Political Infrastructure. DART’s advanced manufacturing apprenticeship has placed more than 100 Monterey Bay residents on pathways into the AAM sector. A new aircraft maintenance technician (AMT) apprenticeship is now underway. These programs are not charity — they are incentive architecture. When local workers and local economies have a visible stake in your growth, they show up at hearings. That is how policy gets made and how it holds.
Sustained Work Produces New Institutions. The Monterey Bay Tech Hub — launched in 2024 in partnership with UC Santa Cruz, DART, and the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership — is a direct product of this slow work. A cross-sector regional tech ecosystem spanning AAM, agtech, and the blue economy, the MBTH represents what years of relationship-building, community education, and workforce investment actually produces: new institutional infrastructure that extends the region’s capacity well beyond any single program or company.
The Cautionary Contrast. Amazon’s drone delivery launch in College Station, Texas offers the instructive counterpoint. The technology worked. The economic case was real. But community engagement infrastructure wasn’t built ahead of operations — and the friction that followed, around noise, safety, and privacy, persists years later. The lesson is simple: later is more expensive than early. Community trust compounds, in both directions.
The Four Priorities We Carried Into the Room
For the investors and operators in attendance, DART framed community engagement not as a communications function but as first-order infrastructure — and offered four practical priorities:
Fund engagement before you need it. Delayed engagement costs more, not less. This is an operations investment, not a marketing line item.
Build workforce pipelines ahead of the demand curve. The labor shortage is coming for this sector. Local hire programs are the hedge.
Design genuinely responsive feedback loops. Communities can tell the difference between a listening session and a rubber stamp. The distinction matters.
Hire for local relationship fluency. This skill set belongs on the org chart alongside technical and regulatory expertise — not as an afterthought.
The Slow Work Is a Competitive Advantage
The technology is not waiting for the community. That gap — between aircraft capability and community trust, workforce readiness, and local alignment — is the risk. The opportunity is to close it: deliberately, early, and with humility.
The Monterey Bay Tech Hub is proof that closing that gap compounds over time. What begins as workforce programming and community education becomes regional economic infrastructure — the kind that draws investment, anchors policy, and makes an entire sector more durable.
The slow work is not a soft consideration. It is the competitive advantage.
DART will continue doing that work in the Monterey Bay region and beyond. We are grateful for opportunities like the Doon Insights workshop that put these conversations at the table where capital, policy, and operations intersect.
Learn more about DART’s workforce, infrastructure, and ecosystem programs at mbdart.org.
A new chapter in Monterey Bay’s aviation workforce story is underway.
Monterey Bay DART, in partnership with Hartnell College, is implementing the Maturing Regional AgTech and Aerospace Job Readiness Pathways program, known as MsUAS Pathways, a two-year initiative made possible by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation. The program is designed to do something deceptively straightforward: connect people in our region to real, well-paying careers in drones and aerospace technology, including residents who’ve never seen themselves reflected in this industry before.
MsUAS Pathways is the community-embedded implementation arm of a broader regional sUAS workforce ecosystem that DART is building alongside UC Santa Cruz’s CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER). Under a recently amended Memorandum of Understanding, MsUAS Pathways and CIDER’s Drones Uplifting the Central Coast (DUCC) initiative now function as complementary components of a single regional strategy — what we and our CIDER partners describe as “a regional sUAS ecosystem, two complementary investment strategies.”
The drone industry is growing fast. From agricultural monitoring in the Salinas Valley to advanced air mobility operations emerging in Marina and beyond, employers across our region are actively looking for workers with technical training and FAA credentials. But for many community members — first-generation college students, farmworker families, residents of Seaside, and military veterans, the path into these careers has been unclear, if visible at all.
MsUAS Pathways is built to change that.
Over the next two years, the program aims to serve 150 participants across Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties, preparing at least 50 individuals to earn FAA Part 107 certification, the core commercial drone credential, while building durable pathways into aerospace careers.
The program works across five coordinated areas:
DART welcomed Peter Church as MsUAS Project Lead in January 2026. A former U.S. Navy H-60 Seahawk pilot, Naval Academy flight instructor, and Joby Aviation training developer, Peter brings exactly the kind of cross-sector experience this program requires: deep aviation expertise, a commitment to education, and firsthand understanding of what military-to-civilian transitions actually look like.
“This program will create great opportunities and community-based on-ramps to a growing industry,” Peter said when he joined the team. “We can’t wait to connect people to quality training and meaningful careers in UAS operations.”
MsUAS Pathways doesn’t stand alone. It operates as one half of a coordinated, two-part regional strategy with our longtime partner, the UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) — a program under CITRIS Aviation, led by Faculty Director Ricardo SanFelice, with CIDER Director Rebecca Fenwick leading the initiative’s drone education work.
Through its Drones Uplifting the Central Coast (DUCC) initiative, funded by California Jobs First, CIDER provides statewide stewardship of FAA Part 107 curriculum, instructor training, and delivery-coordination capacity, expanding access across K–12 systems and community colleges throughout California. MsUAS Pathways, supported by the James Irvine Foundation, focuses on community-embedded adoption within the Central Coast: bringing CIDER’s curriculum into Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College, supporting faculty development, and opening direct on-ramps for adult learners, veterans, and community-based organizations.
As the partnership’s shared attribution language puts it: “The Maturing sUAS Pathways Project enables CIDER’s publicly available Part 107 curriculum by supporting its local adoption, instructional use, and integration within select Central Coast community colleges.”
Put more simply: DUCC widens the funnel statewide; MsUAS Pathways ensures institutional adoption and learner progression through it at home. Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College serve as the integrating backbone where these two investments meet — so learners experience one coherent pathway rather than parallel programs.
This partnership builds on years of shared work, including the 2021 Drone-Forestry Career Pathways Report and video, the 2023 Emerging Technology Workforce Skills Demand Study, and Drone Camp programming from 2020 through 2025. Together, DART and CIDER are demonstrating a replicable statewide model: CIDER provides curriculum and coordination at scale, while trusted local partners like DART drive community-embedded implementation.
MsUAS Pathways doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s part of a layered regional system that DART and its partners have been building for years — from the RV-12 Airplane Build Lab at Pajaro Valley High School, to the Aircraft Maintenance Technician Apprenticeship at Joby Aviation, to drone curriculum stewarded through UC Santa Cruz’s CITRIS Institute for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) and scaled statewide through the DUCC initiative. MsUAS Pathways extends this ecosystem further, adding new community-facing entry points and a dedicated veteran pathway.
The goal isn’t just to train workers. It’s to make the Monterey Bay region a place where anyone, regardless of background, income, or prior exposure to aviation, can find a credible on-ramp to a career in one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sectors of our economy.
We’re grateful to the James Irvine Foundation for making MsUAS Pathways possible, and to California Jobs First for enabling CIDER’s companion DUCC investment. Our thanks also go to our partners at Hartnell College, Monterey Peninsula College, the Monterey County Black Caucus, UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Aviation and CIDER, including CIDER Director Rebecca Fenwick, for bringing this work to life.
Stay tuned for updates as cohorts launch, partnerships deepen, and community members take their first steps toward the runway.
To learn more about DART’s workforce programs, visit mbdart.org/programs/workforce-development.
US aviation industry leaders, policymakers, educators, and innovators will gather in Monterey, CA, March 31–April 2 for the LIFT Summit, the state’s premier forum for collaboration across the low-altitude economy. Hosted by Monterey Bay DART, the annual event focuses on the future of advanced air mobility (AAM) and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).
The summit takes place at the Monterey Conference Center, with an opening reception at the Monterey Jet Center, bus tours and live flight demonstrations at Airspace Integration UAS Test Range, La Selva Beach and Marina Municipal Airport.
Summit participants include technology developers, airport and transportation leaders, government representatives, defense partners, educational institutions, and economic development organizations.
Key presenters and panelists include:
Over three days, the event spotlights initiatives and technologies shaping the next generation of aviation. Attendees have the unique opportunity to interact with forerunners in aerial innovation. For a complete conference agenda visit the Summit website.
Event schedule highlights include:
Hosted at the Monterey Jet Center, this reception offers sponsors, speakers, and VIP guests exclusive access to industry executives and aviation pioneers.
A full-day immersive experience featuring airfield tours and live flight demonstrations from leading AAM and UAS companies.
Two days of keynote presentations, expert panels, and workshops addressing workforce readiness, infrastructure, policy frameworks, airspace integration, and economic growth in the low-altitude economy.
A high-level networking event connecting industry leaders, government officials, educators, and innovators.
“The summit emphasizes implementation,” said Josh Metz, DART Executive Director. “When industry, education, and government align around concrete next steps, we move beyond discussion and drive measurable progress for advanced air mobility in California and the nation.”
As advanced air mobility continues to gain momentum nationwide, the LIFT Summit underscores Monterey Bay’s growing role as a hub for next-generation aviation, promoting innovation, testing, and partnership.
For more information about the LIFT Summit, including registration and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.mbdart.org/summit.
On November 17, 2025, the DART-funded Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT) Apprenticeship at Joby Aviation officially launched, marking a significant milestone in the Monterey Bay region’s effort to build equitable, high-quality career pathways in advanced aviation. This inaugural cohort represents the first implementation of a carefully designed 18-month, earn-and-learn apprenticeship, developed to prepare participants for long-term careers in aircraft maintenance while meeting the evolving needs of the advanced air mobility industry.
The program launched with three funded apprentices from the Monterey Bay region, reflecting a deliberate focus on local talent and inclusive access to careers that have historically been difficult to enter without prior exposure or financial flexibility.
Unlike short-term training programs, the AMT Apprenticeship is a substantial, 2.5-year investment. Apprentices are paid while receiving hands-on, on-the-job training aligned with the technical competencies required for taking the FAA Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) certification exams and continuing career opportunities at Joby. Because of this depth, the program was intentionally launched with a small cohort.
The goal of this first round is simple: get it right before scaling.
By piloting the program with three apprentices, partners can refine curriculum integration, mentorship structures, wage progression, and certification alignment, ensuring the model is sustainable and effective before expanding to a larger cohort in future rounds.
For the inaugural apprentices, the program represents more than a job, it’s a discovered career pathway.
“I didn’t even know this kind of career was an option,” shared one apprentice. “To be able to earn a paycheck, learn directly on the job, and work with a company like Joby Aviation is something I’m incredibly grateful for. It’s opened a door I didn’t know existed.”
That sentiment captures one of the program’s core objectives: demystifying careers in aviation and making them accessible to individuals who may not have followed a traditional aerospace or engineering pathway.
The future of the AMT Apprenticeship seamlessly dovetails with DART’s RV-12 Airplane Build Lab in partnership with Pajaro Valley High School, creating a clear, connected aviation pathway that begins in high school and extends directly into industry.
Launched in partnership with Pajaro Valley Unified School District, the RV-12 Build Lab is a groundbreaking Career Technical Education (CTE) experience: building a full-scale aircraft from the ground up. The program uses the same RV-12 aircraft used in the AMT Apprenticeship, creating direct continuity between classroom learning and real-world maintenance training.
The AMT Apprenticeship is a flagship initiative within DART’s broader advanced aviation workforce strategy, supported by catalytic state investment through California’s Jobs First framework and Uplift Central Coast. The program builds on DART’s long-standing mission to align industry, education, and community partners around family-sustaining jobs of the future, particularly in emerging low-altitude economies.
In addition to investment under California Jobs First, the Central Coast K-16 Regional Collaborative is providing resources to support the AMTA and advance the Central Coast Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem through paid, work-based learning opportunities for students. The AMTA is the first and only apprenticeship model out of 10 funded pathways for recent graduates with the Collaborative’s partnered Central Coast schools.
By grounding the pilot cohort in the Monterey Bay region, the program also reinforces a commitment to place-based workforce development, ensuring that local residents can participate directly in the growth of next-generation aviation industries.
As the first cohort progresses through the 18-month program, lessons learned will directly inform the design of the next phase. With a refined, proven model in place, partners plan to expand the apprenticeship to serve a larger group of candidates, scaling impact while maintaining quality and rigor.
For now, the focus remains on the three apprentices who took the first step on November 17, setting the foundation for a program designed not just to train workers, but to transform access to aviation careers in the Monterey Bay and beyond.
DART (Drone, Aviation & Robotics Technology) is pleased to welcome Jaqueline Cruz to its Board of Directors. (more…)
DART (Drone, Aviation & Robotics Technology) is pleased to announce Peter Church as Project Lead for the Maturing Regional AgTech & Aerospace Job Readiness Pathways program, referred to as MsUAS Pathways. This new, two-year workforce initiative was awarded to Hartnell College and in partnership with DART by the James Irvine Foundation. (more…)
SANTA CRUZ, CA — The draft California Advanced Air Mobility Infrastructure Readiness and Three-Year Implementation Work Plan, issued by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is open for public comment until Friday, January 16th, providing a critical window for industry stakeholders and community members to shape the future of flight in the state.
The comprehensive work plan was developed under guidance from the advisory panel, established through Senator Anna Caballero’s Senate Bill (SB) 800. The legislation required Caltrans to assess the state’s existing infrastructure and identify the pathways necessary to support a robust, equitable vertiport network. DART has remained a steadfast advocate for the legislative and regulatory frameworks needed to transition AAM from concept to reality, including through its active support of SB 800.
“The release of this work plan is a significant step forward in our mission to support AAM growth in California,” said Josh Metz, Executive Director of DART. “By supporting Senator Caballero’s SB 800 and collaborating with state agencies like Caltrans and CalSTA, we are ensuring that California remains at the forefront of aviation innovation while prioritizing environmental sustainability and community resilience.”
Key highlights of the Three-Year Implementation Work Plan include:
DART encourages all interested parties to review the draft report and submit their feedback during the public comment period to ensure the final implementation plan reflects the diverse needs of the state’s innovation economy and its residents. The work plan can be accessed at dot.ca.gov/programs/aeronautics.
For more information on DART’s advocacy and other efforts, visit mbdart.org.
UPDATE: The period for public comment has been extended to February 6, 2026.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has released its long-anticipated Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Strategy, marking an important milestone in aligning federal, state, and local efforts to responsibly integrate next-generation aircraft into the national airspace system. State aviation officials, through the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), have welcomed the strategy as a critical framework for collaboration, safety, workforce readiness, and infrastructure planning.
For Drone, Aviation & Robotics Technology (DART), the Strategy strongly validates the integrated, region-first approach we have been advancing across Workforce, Infrastructure, and Ecosystem development.
The National Strategy emphasizes that AAM success depends on a skilled, inclusive workforce—spanning pilots, technicians, operators, planners, and data specialists. This directly aligns with DART’s workforce initiatives, which focus on building accessible, career-connected pathways into advanced aviation and autonomy, particularly for historically underserved communities. Our programs are designed to ensure that emerging AAM opportunities translate into family-sustaining jobs and long-term regional prosperity.
USDOT and state aviation leaders underscore the importance of early infrastructure planning—airspace integration, ground facilities, charging and energy systems, and community-compatible siting. DART’s infrastructure work reflects this guidance, supporting public agencies as they evaluate vertiports, test sites, and multimodal integration strategies that are safe, scalable, and aligned with regional transportation goals.
A central theme of the Strategy—and the accompanying NASAO response—is the essential role states play as conveners and integrators between federal policy, local communities, and industry. DART’s ecosystem-building model mirrors this logic: creating trusted spaces where public agencies, universities, industry partners, and community organizations can coordinate rather than compete.
This approach is currently taking shape through DART’s ongoing collaboration with Caltrans Division of Aeronautics, University of California, Berkeley, and the American Air Advantage Consortium to advance a competitive proposal under the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Together, we are demonstrating how state-enabled, regionally grounded partnerships can help the FAA test, learn, and scale AAM integration in ways that are operationally realistic and publicly accountable.
As NASAO notes, the National AAM Strategy affirms that AAM will not be deployed by industry alone—it will succeed only through close coordination with state aviation agencies, transportation departments, and regional partners who understand local conditions and public priorities. DART is proud to be part of this emerging national alignment, translating federal vision into practical, place-based action here on the Central Coast and beyond.
We look forward to continuing this work with our partners and sharing updates as the eIPP process advances.
As we close the chapter on another remarkable year, I want to pause and simply say: Thank you.
This year has been defined by deepened trust, dynamic partnerships, and bold, forward-leaning collaboration across our local, state, national, and international communities. What we’ve accomplished Together would not be possible without the extraordinary ecosystem that surrounds and supports DART.
We are profoundly grateful for the continued confidence and catalytic support from the James Irvine Foundation, which continues to be foundational to our ability to expand equitable access to the high-quality jobs and infrastructure of the future.
We’ve had the privilege of engaging on the global stage, working alongside Coast-to-Coast partners and supporting California delegations to the Netherlands and the Paris Air Show—strengthening international bridges that will shape the future of advanced air mobility, autonomy, and workforce opportunity.
Across California, we are thankful for the strong collaboration with GO-Biz, Caltrans Division of Aeronautics, and our extraordinary university partners across the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute campuses—UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, and UC Merced—as well as California State University Monterey Bay, Hartnell College, the Bay Area Community College Consortium, and the Foundation for California Community Colleges, relationships continue to power our workforce pipeline, research integration, and real-world deployment.
On the industry side, we are grateful for the trust and collaboration of Skyway, Airspace Integration, The Reservoir, and our OEM and platform partners including Joby Aviation, Wisk Aero, Archer Aviation, Elroy Air, and Odys Aviation. We are equally thankful for the partnership of our major airport collaborators including San Francisco International Airport, San José Mineta International Airport, Monterey Regional Airport, and the many Monterey Bay–area general aviation airports that are helping define what comes next.
We are also deeply appreciative of our economic development, and community including the Monterey Bay Tech Hub, B3K Prosperity, and the many local governments, tribal partners, nonprofits, educators, advocates, and entrepreneurs who make this work real and rooted.
And none of this happens without our small but mighty DART team—a group that consistently punches above its weight with heart, precision, creativity, and grit. Your dedication is the engine behind every success we celebrate.
If this year was about momentum, 2026 is shaping up to be a breakout year.
We are heading into the new year with an exceptional pipeline of projects across workforce development, infrastructure deployment, advanced air mobility integration, international engagement, and market activation. The energy, alignment, and opportunity in front of us is unlike anything we’ve seen yet—and we are just getting started. The LIFT Summit is gonna be lit!
As the year comes to a close, I wish each of you and your families a joyful, restorative holiday season, and a healthy, prosperous, and impactful New Year. Thank you for believing in this work, for building alongside us, and for helping shape a future that is more innovative, more inclusive, and more connected than ever.
With deep gratitude and optimism,
Josh Metz
Executive Director, DART