(Radio Iowa) – A bill introduced in the Iowa House is sparking a discussion of how to designate and regulate vertiports — take off and landing fields for electric aircraft. Republican Representative John Wills of Spirit Lake says Iowa needs to prepare for battery powered aircraft that can carry people and cargo.

“This is going to be the transportation of the future and if we don’t get in front of it, we’re going to be well behind it,” Wills said. “and we want to be a state this is welcoming to business.” Tim McClung is the aviation director for the Iowa Department of Transportation. He says Iowa’s part of a 37-state group talking about electric aircraft that take off and land vertically as well as battery powered fixed-wing planes that need a runway to take off and land.

“It’s a new generation of aircraft that are being developed with new materials, manned or unmanned,” he said. “Primarily right most of these right now are expected to be electric. It’s expected that they’ll start getting their certifications the next two or three years, then we’ll see a slow ramp up in that arena.” These aircraft will also need battery charging facilities. McClung says Iowa’s smaller airports could be a critical part of the infrastructure for what the manufacturers call advanced mobility aircraft.

“They’ll be electric powered,” McClung said. “They will be flown by trained pilots and initially they will rely on airports as their center of operation.” Jim Obradovich is a lobbyist for the Iowa Public Airports Association, which is monitoring the concept. “We just want to have well-regulated airspace and when you add new technology to traditional technology to technology that’s developing and then to the stuff we can’t even in our minds think of that will be out there in the future that we can’t even think of, we just want to make sure it’s well integrated and safe for everyone,” Obradovich said.

One company that’s producing a battery-powered aircraft that operates like a helicopter may start service in Dubai as soon as this year. A company called Archer is looking to do vertical take offs and landings from O’Hare Airport for travel to and from downtown Chicago.