AirIndex and Aeroberm™ Partner to Address AAM's Hidden Infrastructure Crisis

AirIndex and Aeroberm™ — a subsidiary of Australian company Skyportz — have announced a partnership to address one of the least-discussed yet most consequential barriers to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) deployment: the substantial gap between existing helipad infrastructure and the safe landing requirements of future eVTOL aircraft.

The collaboration combines AirIndex's authoritative audit data on U.S. vertical-lift infrastructure with Aeroberm — the world's first patented modular vertipad system.

The Data Problem

An independent analysis by AirIndex of the FAA Airport Master Record — the official federal database for U.S. helipads — has identified four systemic deficiencies.

Of the 5,647 registered helipads in the United States, 98.5% have never been independently field-verified, with records relying entirely on owner self-reporting. Furthermore, more than 1,121 currently operating hospital helipads have no FAA-registered record within one nautical mile.

Many facilities have been relocated — for example, from ground level to rooftop — but federal records have only been partially updated, creating silent discrepancies in recorded elevation, approach geometry, and obstacle data. In some cases, coordinates are simply wrong: one Nashville helipad has been plotted 48.5 nautical miles from its actual location since 1979.

These deficiencies were manageable in the helicopter era, where pilots could visually assess landing surfaces. In the eVTOL era, automated and semi-automated flight operations assume that a helipad's location, dimensions, and clearance status precisely match the record — making these gaps a serious safety liability.

The Size Problem

Even where records are accurate, the existing infrastructure presents fundamental challenges. Among the 5,594 U.S. helipads with registered dimensions, the median pad size is just 48 feet.

Under FAA Engineering Brief 105A — the current guidance document for eVTOL landing areas — a compliant Final Approach and Takeoff (FATO) area requires a load-bearing surface approximately twice the aircraft reference dimension, typically a minimum of 100 feet.

In other words, more than half of all registered U.S. helipads, based on recorded dimensions alone, do not meet current eVTOL operational standards. And those dimension figures rest on a foundation of records that are 98.5% unverified.

The assumption that existing helipads will naturally upgrade into eVTOL vertistops is not supported by the data. The transition from helicopter-era helipad to eVTOL-capable vertipad requires active engineering intervention, not simply regulatory redefinition.

"Federal landing records were built for a world where pilots could visually assess the landing surface," said Alan Holmes, Founder and CEO of Vertical Data Group / AirIndex. "Automated eVTOL flight assumes the records are correct: location, dimensions, obstacles. Our analysis shows they frequently are not. This partnership means we're moving from measuring the gap to closing it."

The Downwash Problem

Size is not the only issue. eVTOL aircraft generate the same aerodynamic forces as helicopters — downwash and outwash — on landing surfaces. Research indicates that multirotor eVTOL configurations produce downwash and outwash velocities that are greater in magnitude and extend well beyond the aircraft's landing zone boundary, creating hazard zones for ground crew, passengers, and bystanders.

Full-scale outwash measurements conducted by the FAA in December 2024 confirmed airflow velocities exceeding 34.5 mph at helipad edges — the significant hazard threshold defined in Engineering Brief 105A.

Repainting a helipad's "H" marking as a vertipad "V" does not solve the problem — it merely inherits it.

The Aeroberm Solution

Aeroberm is the world's first patented modular vertipad system, engineered to address the three primary technical barriers to urban vertiport approvals worldwide: rotor downwash and outwash hazards, rotor noise amplification in ground effect, and lithium battery thermal runaway fire safety.

The Aeroberm fractal panel system — validated by Large Eddy Simulation (LES) CFD research at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia — dissipates rotor wake energy approximately 90% faster than a flat asphalt surface, significantly reducing outwash velocities at pad edges and the hazard zone radius around landing operations. The system is modular and can be deployed directly on existing concrete surfaces without bespoke construction, providing a retrofit pathway for helipads that may be physically adequate but aerodynamically non-compliant with current eVTOL safety standards.

For existing helipads that fall below eVTOL size thresholds, Aeroberm's modular system may — where structural load and clearance conditions permit — offer a viable retrofit solution to create compliant infrastructure faster and at lower cost than bespoke construction.

"AirIndex's research makes explicit what the industry has been avoiding," said Clem Newton-Brown, Founder and CEO of Skyportz Australia and inventor of the Aeroberm patent. "Existing helipad records are not a reliable foundation for eVTOL planning.

"Even the helipads that are real, verified, and correctly recorded are mostly the wrong size — and none of them were designed for the aerodynamic realities of multirotor eVTOL. Aeroberm exists to close exactly that gap."

He added: "The partnership with AirIndex means we can now identify which existing facilities are retrofit candidates, what engineering intervention each requires, and deliver that retrofit affordably through a modular solution that meets emerging regulatory standards."

Industry Perspective

Rex Alexander, President of Five Alpha LLC, offered broader context: "The vertical flight data integrity problem is not unique to the United States — similar challenges have been observed in many countries globally. Nor is it a problem of the FAA's own making. The FAA has not been granted comprehensive federal oversight authority over most privately used aviation facilities comparable to its authority over publicly certificated airports. As a result, the funding, staffing, and regulatory incentives to systematically verify and maintain accurate infrastructure data for thousands of private vertical flight facilities have historically been very limited.

"There is a significant regulatory gap: many privately used facilities supporting commercial aviation activities — including hospital helipads and other facilities supporting commercial air operations — are not subject to comprehensive federal infrastructure standards or routine inspection programs. Consequently, absent specific regulatory or operational applicability, the FAA generally lacks direct authority to compel private facility owners to comply with FAA helipad design guidance and infrastructure standards.

"Until Congress provides additional statutory authority and funding to address these issues, the FAA's ability to systematically improve the accuracy, completeness, and verifiability of vertical flight infrastructure data will remain constrained."

Partnership Outlook

The AirIndex–Aeroberm partnership combines AirIndex's source-credentialed, multi-source-audited U.S. vertical-lift infrastructure database with Aeroberm's modular vertipad engineering, offering systematic retrofit assessment and deployment capability for existing helipad operators, hospital systems, airport authorities, and AAM operators seeking to build vertiport networks on existing infrastructure.

The partnership will initially focus on the U.S. market — where AirIndex's dataset already provides national coverage — before expanding internationally.

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