The state of electric aviation in the United States
282 electric and sustainable aircraft are on the FAA register today: 104 eVTOL aircraft, 56 electric airplanes, 66 electric self-launching gliders and 56 others. None holds the standard airworthiness certificate that ordinary passenger flying requires.
How many there are
The FAA marks each registered aircraft with an engine type, and one of those types is electric. Strip out the drones, which have no seats, and 282 aircraft remain: those that carry people, or that come from a maker on eFlight's watchlist of electric, eVTOL, hydrogen, solar and airship developers. That is the whole of piloted electric aviation in the United States as the government records it, out of 317,239 registered aircraft of every kind.
The largest group is eVTOL, the electric vertical take-off aircraft meant to become air taxis: 104 airframes, led by Kitty Hawk (39), Pivotal (BlackFly / Helix) (31), Joby Aviation (12), Archer Aviation (4). Electric self-launching gliders, the oldest and quietest part of the story, account for 66. Electric airplanes and trainers, chiefly Pipistrel's, make up 56. Hybrid-electric (7), hydrogen (2), solar (1) and airship (1) projects are counted in ones and twos.
A further 17,483 aircraft carry the electric engine code but are drones with no seats. They are tracked in the drone report, and are the reason "electric aircraft" headlines can quote numbers in the tens of thousands.
By group 282 aircraft
By maker top 12, registered airframes
Who builds them
Kitty Hawk (39), Pipistrel (37), Pivotal (BlackFly / Helix) (31), Schempp-Hirth (21) and Alisport (15) have the most aircraft on the register. The register counts airframes, not sales: prototypes, test aircraft and company-owned demonstrators all appear, and aircraft from programmes that have since ended stay registered until their owners cancel them. So the list measures who has built and registered the most aircraft in the United States, which is not the same as who is delivering to customers.
Most eVTOL developers register their aircraft to themselves and fly them on experimental certificates while certification work continues. The electric gliders and Pipistrel airplanes, by contrast, mostly belong to private owners and flying clubs, and are the part of electric aviation that is already ordinary.
Where they are
California holds 122 of the 282, then Vermont (17) and Florida (13). The state is where the registered owner is based, so a manufacturer's headquarters or flight-test site pulls its whole fleet into one state. A small state high on the list usually means one company.
By state top 10
How few are certified
An airworthiness certificate says what an aircraft may be used for. The standard certificate is the one airliners and ordinary private aircraft hold. Of the 282 electric and sustainable aircraft, not one holds a standard certificate yet. 162 fly on experimental certificates, which allow research, development and showing but not carrying paying passengers; 15 are light-sport aircraft; and 105 have no certificate on file yet, which usually means newly registered or not yet flying.
This is the single most useful number for judging how far electric aviation has come. Air-taxi service needs standard certificates on production aircraft, and that column will fill in only as the FAA completes type certification of the first eVTOLs.
Airworthiness certificate
Registration certificates by year latest certificate held by each aircraft
2026 runs through October 2, 2026. An aircraft that changed hands shows the year of its newest certificate, so early years understate the original pace.
The pace
32 of today's electric and sustainable aircraft hold certificates issued in 2026 so far, against 40 for the whole of 2025 and 33 for 2024. The count is small enough that a single company's test fleet moves it, which is exactly what makes the daily register worth watching: each new eVTOL airframe shows up here, by tail number, the morning after the FAA issues its certificate.
The newest arrivals, from the last thirty days: N145MS Jonker Sailplanes JS3 RES (2026-09-23); N171JW Schempp-Hirth VENTUS 3E (2026-09-17); N614WA Wisk Aero CX6-1A (2026-09-16); N549JX Joby Aviation JAS4-1 (2026-09-06).
Every one of these aircraft has its own page with the FAA's record in plain English, and the tracker lists all 282 with filters by group, maker and state. What changed shows each morning's additions and departures.
Electric aviation in the United States, in numbers answers refresh every morning
How many electric aircraft are registered in the United States?
As of October 2, 2026, the FAA aircraft register lists 282 electric and sustainable aircraft that carry people or come from a dedicated electric-aircraft maker: 104 eVTOL aircraft, 66 electric self-launching gliders, 56 electric airplanes and 56 others (hybrid-electric, hydrogen, solar and airship projects, and one-off experimental builds). A further 17,483 aircraft carry the FAA's electric engine code but are drones with no seats, counted separately. See every aircraft.
Which companies have the most electric aircraft on the U.S. register?
Kitty Hawk (39), Pipistrel (37), Pivotal (BlackFly / Helix) (31), Schempp-Hirth (21) and Alisport (15), as of October 2, 2026. Counts are registered airframes, including prototypes and test aircraft, not deliveries to customers.
Which state has the most electric aircraft?
California, with 122 of the 282, followed by Vermont (17) and Florida (13). The state is where the registered owner is based, which for a manufacturer is usually its headquarters or test site.
How many electric aircraft are certified for ordinary passenger flying?
None of the 282 yet hold a standard airworthiness certificate, the kind ordinary passenger-carrying aircraft need. 162 fly on experimental certificates, 15 as light-sport aircraft, and 105 have no airworthiness certificate on file yet, which usually means newly registered or not yet flying.
Where does this data come from, and how often is it updated?
From the FAA's Releasable Aircraft Database, the public copy of the U.S. civil aircraft register, which the FAA republishes every night at 11:30 pm Central. This page is rebuilt every morning from that file; the figures above come from the file dated October 2, 2026. Nothing is added from other sources. How the daily update works.
What counts as an electric or sustainable aircraft here?
An aircraft the FAA codes as electric that either has at least one seat or comes from a maker on eFlight's watchlist of electric, eVTOL, hydrogen, solar and airship developers, such as Joby, Archer, Beta, Wisk and Pipistrel. Drones with no seats are tracked on the drone pages instead.
How to read this page
Everything above is computed from the FAA's Releasable Aircraft Database, the public copy of the U.S. civil aircraft register, which the FAA republishes every night at 11:30 pm Central. eFlight Registry downloads it each morning, checks it, translates the codes and rewrites this page. No figures come from company announcements or press coverage. "Electric and sustainable" means an aircraft the FAA codes as electric that has at least one seat or comes from a maker on eFlight's watchlist. Owner details appear only as the FAA publishes them; individuals are never named in lists.
To cite this page: eFlight Registry, "The state of electric aviation in the United States", data as of October 2, 2026, https://eflight.com/electric-aviation. The numbers as data: /api/today.json.