NASA Cuts Imperil Vertical Flight Technology Leadership

Congress can maintain American leadership in vertical takeoff and landing aircraft by supporting NASA.

The US Capitol Building.

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On May 2, the White House released its top-line “skinny” budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2026 (FY26). President Trump’s agenda to reduce unnecessary federal government spending decreased non-defense discretionary funding by $163B (22.6%) below the current FY25 spending level. NASA’s budget was reduced from approximately $24.8B in FY24 and FY25 to $18.8B for FY26 — a 24% decrease.

The details were published on June 9 in NASA’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Technical Supplement, showing how NASA’s research objectives and funding were being directed. Aeronautics Research was reduced from $935M to $588.7M for FY26 (and beyond), a 37% cut. Each of the five NASA Aeronautics programs were reduced in scope. The hardest hit by far, Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP), was cut nearly in half, from $259.6M to $133.4M.

AAVP, which “develops the tools, technologies, and concepts to enable safe new aircraft that are faster, quieter, and more fuel efficient” has historically comprised six projects. The FY26 budget cuts the number of projects in half by combining several to save on management overhead.

The Technical Supplement explains that “the highest priority elements” from Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) and Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) would be transferred to the Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) program element — which would then be called Subsonic Vehicle Technologies and Tools (SVTT) project — and NASA would then “close out the HyTEC and RVLT projects.”

RVLT Elimination

Specifically, the Technical Supplement states:

Within the Advanced Air Vehicles Program, NASA will fund aircraft and propulsion research that will provide the nation with a competitive advantage in the aviation industry and support the hypersonics work with the DoD [Department of Defense]. To achieve cost savings, NASA will refocus on the priority challenge of providing the burgeoning U.S. Advanced Air Mobility [AAM] market with validated computational tools to understand and address noise and performance of these new vehicles [emphasis added]. It will do so by descoping its vertical lift portfolio by reducing research on electric vehicles including ride handling, ride quality, crashworthiness, support for extra-planetary vehicles, DoD partnerships, and university collaborations and centers of excellence.

The RVLT project has traditionally advanced helicopter, rotorcraft, drone and AAM technologies, including modeling and simulation tools. The revolutionary vertical lift technology advancements under RVLT have provided critical tools and improvements for civil and military helicopters, advanced rotorcraft, drones and AAM aircraft, e.g., electric vertical-, short- and conventional-takeoff and landing (eVTOL, eSTOL and eCTOL) aircraft. RVLT’s wind tunnel testing, flight test measurements, analysis and modeling have provided valuable insights for current and future AAM designs, enhancing safety and performance, including reducing noise.

As detailed in the Technical Supplement, this critical acoustics and modeling research will continue under the new SVTT project. However, all of the other important work that is currently taking place under RVLT will be eliminated.

Previous years have funded RVLT at around $31M. Although the exact numbers aren’t released, the proposed cuts to RVLT are believed to be on the order of 70–80% — to a level between $5M and $10M. These cuts would do lasting damage to American leadership in advanced vertical lift research — areas that are critical to both national security and economic competitiveness, particularly as China invests heavily in aeronautics research facilities and AAM.

Loss of Scientific Expertise

In addition, like NASA as a whole and other government agencies, significant workforce reductions are underway. It’s estimated that the cuts to RVLT headcount are also on the order of 70–80%. Prior to early retirements and voluntary separations this year, RVLT funding previously went to more than 200 researchers, about 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. The proposed SVTT project would only support a few of the world’s leading researchers in vertical lift.

The majority of RVLT work is at Ames Research Center in California and Langley Research Center in Virginia, with some work at Glenn Research Center in Ohio and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. Current numbers aren’t available, but NASA plans to reduce the total headcount at Ames from 1,225 FTEs in FY25 to 755 (a 38% reduction) in FY26, and at Langley from 1,730 FTEs to 1,058 (a 40% cut). The cuts to these more aeronautics-focused centers are a higher proportion of the overall cut in NASA personnel from 17,491 to 11,853 (32%).

A Lost Generation of Scientists and Engineers

Through RVLT, NASA helps support the three academic teams that make up the Vertical Lift Research Centers of Excellence (VLRCOEs). These teams — comprising more than a dozen universities, led by Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland and the Georgia Institute of Technology — perform basic and applied research in support of the nation’s vertical lift priorities, and also train engineers for careers in vertical flight. The cuts to RVLT mean that NASA will no longer support the VLRCOE program.

More broadly, the FY26 budget also eliminates NASA’s entire science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program, previously $143M and “focused on building a future STEM workforce” in the US.

Economic Impacts

For decades, the aerospace industry has been America’s single largest contributor to a positive trade balance, with aerospace and defense exports reaching $138.6B in 2024. Now, with China pouring investments into the sector and the European Union funding multiple targeted aviation technologies and heavily supporting its industrial growth, US economic and technological leadership are jeopardized.

NASA contributes to America’s economic competitiveness, fueling growth in US industry and supporting quality, high-paying jobs across the country and internationally. The agency reported that it had generated more than $75B in economic output across all 50 states in FY23. If the proposed cuts are enacted, American companies will lose the historically strong benefits of NASA research and partnership, and they risk losing competitive advantages around the world.

Congressional Support

In July, the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee (CJS) pushed back on severe cuts to NASA, voting to restore the top-level funding back to the FY25 level of $24.8B. The subcommittee proposed reinstating $186.3M of the cuts to NASA Aeronautics, with a budget of $775M for FY26. Undoing the majority of the cut is a huge vote of confidence in NASA’s and the nation’s aviation future.

If the remaining congressional committees similarly support NASA (and particularly NASA Aeronautics), these cuts — which would be disastrous for the nation’s scientific leadership in AAM and vertical flight aeronautics — would be mostly avoided. Of course, with so many personnel across the agency already gone, some damage can’t be undone, but it will be greatly ameliorated.