Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Ohio Builds the Sky's Data Network Before the Vertiports

Most states chasing air taxis start by announcing a vertiport. Ohio just did the opposite. The Ohio Department of Transportation’s Division of Advanced Air Mobility and DriveOhio have published the Ohio AAM Action Plan – titled From Ground to Air – a 49-page plan, released in October 2026 and reported on October 18-19, that builds a statewide data network first and targets routine commercial drone and electric aircraft flights by 2029.

The logic is hard to argue with. Aircraft are arriving faster than the systems that must coordinate them. Ohio’s plan starts with what it calls the Digital Enterprise: a network whose participating nodes collect and share verified air and ground data – aircraft position and intent, weather, surveillance, infrastructure status and emergencies. It is designed to complement the FAA’s air traffic services, not replace them, and its traffic management tools would first run in shadow mode, advising alongside human procedures without controlling aircraft while everyone learns how much to trust it.

A plan in three honest phases

Phase 1, covering 2026-2027, is planning: statewide alignment, analysis of air and ground infrastructure, and the foundations for multiplatform advanced aircraft operations and data management. Phase 2, in 2027-2028, moves to market-driven pilot and demonstration flights, aiming to establish the first operational advanced air mobility routes and generate real-world evidence on safety, regulation, infrastructure and data exchange. Phase 3, in 2028-2029, prepares to scale: refining policy, identifying infrastructure investments, defining who does what – state, communities, industry – and readying the state for broader adoption as rules and markets mature.

Six pillars hold the structure up: infrastructure, policy, proof of concept, workforce, funding and engagement. Early mission focus falls on conventional takeoff and landing aircraft carrying packages, medical specimens and specialist personnel – practical cargo work – before more complex operations with vertical takeoff, short takeoff and uncrewed aircraft on scheduled routes. It is a notably unglamorous sequence, and that is a compliment. Cargo first, complexity later, evidence at every step.

Ohio is not starting from zero

The plan’s operating record centers on Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport, where ODOT’s AAM Division and its UAS Center have run more than 200 advanced air mobility test flights using SkyVision, a ground-based detect-and-avoid radar system developed with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Future testing will incorporate SkyVision 2.0, with enhanced surveillance and operational monitoring for more complex use cases. In other words, the data network Ohio wants to build statewide already has a working ancestor, and the state knows what its radar can and cannot see.

That grounding separates this document from the average strategy PDF. Ohio has spent years as a quiet test state – the same Springfield area hosts the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence – and the plan reads like an operator writing down what it has learned, rather than a newcomer announcing ambitions. Set it beside this week’s flying news, from Alef’s 1,000th logged flight to manufacturers touring aircraft city to city, and Ohio’s bet becomes clear: vehicles will be ready roughly when they are ready, but the states with working data networks will be ready on day one.

Workforce is a pillar, not a footnote

One detail in the six pillars deserves more attention than it usually gets: workforce. Every advanced air mobility plan eventually runs into the same shortage – not pilots first, but the dispatchers, data operators, maintenance technicians and community liaison staff who keep a network of small aircraft moving safely. Ohio has written workforce into the plan from Phase 1, alongside infrastructure and funding, which suggests the state expects hiring and training to take as long as building the data systems themselves. That is realistic. A route network announced for 2028 that only starts recruiting in 2028 will not open on time, and Ohio appears determined not to make that mistake. The engagement pillar matters for the same reason: towns that hear about delivery drones and air taxis early, from their own state officials, react very differently from towns that meet the idea as a surprise overhead.

What this means beyond Ohio

For manufacturers and operators choosing launch markets, the message is blunt. Regulators are learning the same lesson on the certification side, as the UAE’s hands-on certification work with Joby and Archer showed last week: shared data and early familiarity beat late surprises. A state offering verified weather, surveillance and infrastructure data – plus a defined path from shadow-mode tools to routine operations – shortens the distance between a demonstration flight and a scheduled service more than a ribbon-cutting at a new vertiport ever will. For communities, the phased approach offers something rare in this industry: a say in the process during Phase 1 and Phase 2, before routes harden into habit.

For investors, watch the milestones that are checkable: pilot routes in 2027-2028, the performance of SkyVision 2.0 in more complex testing, and whether the Digital Enterprise signs up nodes beyond state agencies. A data network is only as valuable as its participants.

The takeaway

Air taxis will not scale on aircraft alone. They will scale on boring, trustworthy information, shared quickly between everyone sharing the sky. Ohio just published the most concrete state-level attempt yet to build that layer, with routine flights by 2029 as the stated goal and 200 test flights already in the logbook. Other states drafting their own plans now have a template – and a head start to catch up with.

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