20th Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium an Outstanding Success

Record Gathering at World’s Longest Running Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Conference

FAIRFAX, VA, UNITED STATES, August 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The 20th Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium (EAS), held at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on July 18–19, was an outstanding success by all measures. The two-day program featured a record 47 speakers and 12 moderators, and attracted nearly 200 in-person attendees — a 50% increase over last year — also a record. More than 100 registrants also ordered the EAS 2026 video recordings, which are still available to the public to those who couldn’t attend.

“Advanced air mobility (AAM) is a dynamic new segment of the aviation industry enabled by electric propulsion and advanced technologies” said Mike Hirschberg, co-producer of EAS 2026. “This year’s symposium highlighted a wide range of new aircraft designs and propulsion system developments as well as important regulatory and infrastructure developments — some for the first time.”

Building on this success, the organizers confirm that the 21st Annual EAS will be held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on July 24–25, 2027, on the two days immediately prior to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture Oshkosh — the world’s largest aviation event. Proposals from speakers and sponsors interested in participating in EAS 2027 are invited for an expanded program.

Every year, EAS highlights electric vertical-, short, and conventional takeoff and landing (eVTOL, eSTOL and eCTOL) aircraft — collectively referred to as AAM. EAS, the world’s longest AAM conference, provides insights from executives representing most of the leading AAM companies, as well as key developers of infrastructure, propulsion technologies and regulations.

This year EAS featured 12 in-depth sessions encompassing a broad range of electric aircraft categories featuring battery-, hybrid- and hydrogen-electric propulsion approaches. Speakers represented seven countries and highlighted the world’s key AAM developments.

Presentations and panels included representatives from a leading helicopter manufacturer (Robinson), nine eVTOL aircraft developers (AIR EV, Eve Air Mobility, Horizon Aircraft, Joby Aviation, Jump Aero, Laminar Vector Technology, Pivotal Aero, Skyfly and Wisk), six eCTOL and eSTOL aircraft developers (Alphafrog, Ampaire, AURA Aero, Bye Aerospace, Electra Aero and EVIO Aircraft) and seven propulsion system companies (H2FLY, Hydroplane, magniX, Pratt & Whitney Canada, RED Aircraft, VerdeGo Aero and Whisper Aero).

EAS 2026 was honored to have Mr. Jeffrey Vincent, the FAA Southern Region Administrator, and Mr. Will N. Watts, Jr., Chief Operations Officer for the Assistant Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation, for a session on the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) eVTOL and AAM Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). NASA was also featured with a talk by Mr. Michael Vincent, NASA’s Open eVTOL deputy program manager.

A special session on the FAA’s new Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC), which just took effect the week of EAS, was moderated by Scott Severen, President of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA). Presentations and discussions included leaders from AIR EV, Skyfly, Laminar Vector and Pivotal.

The annual session on hydrogen-electric propulsion was organized by the non-profit HySky Society and chaired by its CEO, Danielle McLean. It featured Dr. Anita Sengupta, CEO of Hydroplane, LLC; Dr. Josef Kallo, founder and CTO of H2FLY; and Dr. Nick Ingarra, a Senior Engineer at Munro Defense.

The final session provided a retrospective on the past 20 years of electric aviation developments and views on the coming decades. Long time AAM industry participants Mike Hirschberg, Ken Swartz and Will Tacke, as well as electric aviation pioneer Mark Moore, CEO of Whisper Aero, provided their perspectives. Moore had spoken at the first EAS and most subsequent meetings; he and Hirschberg were also co-organizers of the early the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Transformative Vertical Flight (TVF) / eVTOL Symposiums, beginning in 2014. These events helped bolster Moore’s electric propulsion work when he was at NASA and Uber Elevate, and helped launch today’s AAM industry.

Top sponsors and partners supporting EAS were AERO Friedrichshafen, Bloomy, GoEngineer, magniX, NEXA, Pivotal, Robinson, Toray, Vertiport Chicago, Whisper and Wisk, as well as VFS headquarters. Exhibitors were Bloomy, M4 Engineering, Neuroglia Technologies, Toray, TotalSim, Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo and VFS.

EAS, first held in 2007, is the world’s longest running conference on electric aviation. Since 2017, the symposium has been held in conjunction with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture Oshkosh, which attracted more than 734,000 attendees and 10,000 aircraft again this year. Over the course of 20 years, EAS has featured more than 600 talks by AAM leaders in industry, academia and government agencies.

EAS 2026 was co-produced by Ken Swartz, President and Senior Aerospace Strategist of Aeromedia Consultants, and Mike Hirschberg, Principal of Hirschberg Heuristics Advisors. Both have been engaged in organizing the annual symposium since 2018 and parallel AAM events with VFS. This year’s event was organized under the auspices of the VFS Federal City Chapter, of which Hirschberg currently serves as the vice-president of operations. The proceeds from EAS 2026 generated more than $4,000 for the Chapter’s student scholarship fund.

Plans for EAS 2027 are already underway. It will take place on July 24–25, again the weekend before AirVenture, with ambitious plans for even more comprehensive coverage of electric-powered aircraft, technologies, regulations and more. Learn more about this year’s and next year’s EAS at www.eas2027.org.

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Ken Swartz
Aeromedia Consultants
info@eas2026.org
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