The Problem

Aviation is among the hardest sectors of the modern economy to decarbonize, and demand for flight worldwide is projected to explode in the coming decades. How to manage this growth while also freeing the industry from fossil fuel dependence is one of the great unanswered questions of the green energy transition. Major industrial nations are racing to research and deploy zero-emission aircraft, but the United States is not one of them.

Aviation currently accounts for 2 to 3 percent of global CO₂ emissions, and the share is growing. As incomes rise worldwide, air travel is projected to at least double by 2050. Banning or restricting flight is not realistic. Carbon removal at the scale aviation requires remains unproven. The only viable path is zero-emission technology.

Jet fuel holds far more energy per kilogram than any battery on the market. Replacing it means solving different problems for different flight distances. Today's batteries can power short regional flights of roughly 100 to 250 miles, with hybrid-electric configurations stretching that further. That covers commuter routes and island-hopping. Medium and long-haul flights are a much harder problem. Batteries already make up a large share of an electric aircraft's weight — roughly a third to over half in current designs, with the Eviation Alice's pack reaching about 60 percent of takeoff weight. A battery pack large enough to power a longer trip would weigh so much that the plane could not take off. Next-generation chemistries — solid-state, lithium-sulfur, and advanced silicon-anode — could change that math, but none has yet reached commercial passenger service. Green hydrogen can power long-haul flight today in principle, but the aircraft and airport infrastructure for it do not yet exist at commercial scale.

Recognizing both the need to quit fossil fuels and the immense economic opportunity, governments across the globe are attacking these technical challenges. China's published hydrogen aviation roadmap sets staged development goals around regional aircraft by 2035 and mainline aircraft by 2050. In April 2026, the country flew a 7.5-ton unmanned hydrogen-powered demonstrator aircraft. Japan has committed over $100 million specifically to aircraft hydrogen fuel cell R&D as part of a ¥2 trillion (~$16 billion) Green Innovation Fund underwriting the country's next-generation aerospace push. The EU has allocated over 100 million euros for hydrogen aviation architectures, and the UK has committed over a hundred million pounds. The United States has no comparable program. NASA's hydrogen aviation work remains at the research and analysis stage on small budgets, while the Trump administration has cancelled the broader DOE hydrogen initiatives — including the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub — that could have anchored the sector.

As the era of fossil fuels comes to a close, our country is in danger of becoming totally dependent on other nations for a critical piece of our transport infrastructure.

The Mission

The Mission for America will rebuild the country's aerospace industry around a generation-defining moonshot: replacing every carbon-powered flight with clean, American-built aircraft. The president will begin the movement with a public address reminding the nation that the aviation sector is one of the most consequential achievements of American industrial policy, the result of close collaboration between government and private businesses that produced nationwide prosperity and decades of global leadership. The Mission will revive that same spirit of innovation and dynamism for a new era of air travel.

By the end of the decade, the country that invented the airplane will be prepared to launch the world's first commercial zero-emission long-haul aviation network. American-built electric planes will serve every short-haul route. In the process, the Mission will create hundreds of thousands of high-wage manufacturing and engineering jobs and rebuild the industrial base the country has lost over the past forty years.

The president will make zero-emission aviation a signature commitment of the campaign and administration. A full-scale prototype of the world's first zero-emission long-haul jet will be rolled out and in ground testing before the first term ends, at least one all-electric regional airline will be flying paying passengers within five years, and every major American airport will begin transitioning to clean power infrastructure before the end of the decade.

The long-haul jet is the Mission's most ambitious engineering goal. An Apollo-scale aerospace partnership pairing the military, NASA, the RFC, and American aerospace manufacturers will design and build the world's first commercial zero-emission model. Federal aerospace R&D funding will match and exceed what the EU, China, Japan, and South Korea currently spend. The program will pull in thousands of engineers, and fund training programs for many more. The military will be the first customer, de-risking the technology the way it did for the original jet engine.

According to many experts, hydrogen power is the most promising option for totally decarbonizing long-haul aviation, but significant questions remain about the technology. The goal of the Mission is to replace carbon-powered flight, not to lock in any one standard. So the Mission will run a parallel push on high-capacity batteries, advancing the chemistry, the domestic manufacturing base, and the critical-mineral supply chain together. A dedicated Manhattan Project for batteries will drive the energy-density breakthroughs, the Mission for Industry will stand up the domestic manufacturing base, and a national effort to secure the raw materials the whole transition depends on will lock down the critical-mineral supply chain. If batteries advance faster than expected, or if hydrogen runs into unforeseen problems, the Mission's industrial base will pivot. Future MFA updates will revise the technology mix as the data comes in. The commitment to the goal does not change: zero-emission flights in American-built aircraft.

On a faster timeline, the Mission will establish a domestic regional electric aircraft industry. The RFC will take equity stakes in the most promising American manufacturers, finance the factories that take them to production volume, and place the first fleet orders for federal regional travel. The FAA will stand up an expedited certification pathway for electric aircraft, modeled on the streamlined processes used for military and experimental aviation. Within five years, certified American-built electric aircraft will fly the short-haul commuter routes today served by aging turboprops burning jet fuel, and by the end of the decade every major U.S. commercial airport will have high-power charging infrastructure ready to turn them around as fast as a refueling stop.

Until the new electric and long-haul fleets are ready, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will help bridge the gap in existing aircraft. SAF is clean liquid fuel that blends with conventional jet fuel, and current aircraft can burn the mix at up to 50 percent SAF without engine modifications. The RFC will finance airlines that retrofit their fleets for higher SAF blends and a diversified domestic SAF industry to supply them, so the existing long-haul fleet starts burning cleaner fuel years before the first zero-emission jet is ready.

Public transport will be the silent partner. The MFA's massive investments in conventional rail, high-speed rail, and intercity bus service, detailed in the Mission for Public Transport, will absorb a significant share of short-haul flight demand that does not need aircraft at all, freeing the aviation industry to focus on routes where flight is genuinely the right mode.

With the tools and tactics laid out in this chapter, the Mission for Aviation will end the toxic carbon emissions from flight, free the country from a volatile global jet fuel supply chain, and establish the United States as a leading producer of the clean-aviation technology that will define travel in the 21st century.

Solution 1: Build the World's First Zero-Emission Long-Haul Jet

The Mission will build the world's first commercial zero-emission long-haul jet and the global industry that will grow up around it. American aerospace, paired with the military and the RFC, will take on the hardest engineering problem in aviation and deliver the aircraft, the production capacity, and the airport infrastructure as one movement.

Hydrogen first; the door stays open. Green hydrogen aviation fuel is made by splitting water molecules with clean electricity in machines called electrolyzers. The resulting hydrogen is chilled to roughly -253°C, turning it into a super-cold liquid that holds far more energy per unit volume than the gas form. Stored in heavily insulated tanks at the airport, the liquid is transferred into aircraft by specialized refueling trucks. Once on board, modified jet turbines or onboard fuel cells convert the hydrogen into thrust, exhausting only water vapor instead of carbon. Green ammonia is more stable than pure hydrogen for both storage and shipping. It liquefies at a more manageable -33°C, moves through existing fertilizer infrastructure, and can be cracked back to hydrogen at the airport when needed. Under the Mission, some U.S. hub airports will host their own electrolyzers and produce hydrogen on site. Others will be supplied by pipeline or truck from the larger hydrogen factories that already serve shipping and fertilizer. While this solution currently focuses on hydrogen, if parallel battery research delivers breakthroughs that make extended-range electric flight viable on medium- and long-haul routes, the RFC and the Department of Defense will pivot the industrial base toward electric.

The Apollo partnership. The MFA will launch a government-military-industry partnership to develop hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft. The model is the original Apollo program: federal funding, military testing and early adoption, and private aerospace engineering. Military adoption of hydrogen aircraft as an early testing ground and first customer mirrors the historical pattern that gave the world the jet engine. Federal aerospace R&D funding will match and exceed what Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea are spending, ending the decades-long retreat from American leadership in advanced aviation. The program will contract under a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)-style model, the fixed-price, milestone-based partnership structure NASA used to accelerate SpaceX and other new entrants in the space industry. The structure will reward fresh ideas delivered on time and on budget.

OEM partnerships. The Apollo partnership will collaborate with every part of the existing aerospace industry, from airframe manufacturers to engine makers. The partnership will pair established OEMs with smaller new entrants under the COTS contracting model so institutional expertise and fresh ideas reinforce each other rather than compete.

Public capital, public upside. The public is underwriting the hardest engineering program in aviation, and it should share in what that investment creates. As it does with the regional electric manufacturers, the RFC will take an equity stake by default in the firms it finances to commercialize the long-haul jet, and the federal government will hold rights to the technology its dollars develop — capturing licensing and royalty revenue as the American jet and its airport systems are sold worldwide. The RFC stays flexible on structure: equity, royalties, milestone-based COTS payments, low-cost loans, or a blend, whatever gets the jet built fastest. Where a manufacturer won't part with a stake, the RFC will still drive a hard bargain for the taxpayer rather than hand over the upside for free. The returns flow back to the American people who carried the risk.

Workforce pipeline with the Mission for Workforce Development. The long-haul jet, the airport hydrogen hubs, and the operations that follow need two distinct labor forces. One is the scientific and engineering pipeline of aerospace engineers, materials scientists, propulsion specialists, and fuel-cell researchers, trained at universities and national labs. The other is the unionized installation and operations workforce of pipefitters, electricians, electrolyzer operators, cryogenic technicians, and airport ground crews who will build the airport hydrogen and charging infrastructure and keep it running. The Mission for Workforce Development will coordinate both pipelines with the Apollo partnership, the federal training centers, and the building trades unions so the people are trained and credentialed before the equipment arrives.

Hydrogen infrastructure for airports. Hydrogen-powered flight needs cryogenic liquid hydrogen or green ammonia stored, handled, and delivered on site at any airport serving these aircraft. The RFC will finance the airport-side storage and refueling infrastructure at lead U.S. hubs, plus on-site green hydrogen production at the hubs where the land, the load, and the local renewable supply make it the right call. Hubs without on-site production will be supplied by pipeline or truck from the larger production facilities serving shipping and fertilizer. The network will start with the top U.S. hubs and expand alongside the commercial hydrogen fleet on a decade-plus timeline.

A global industry grown around the American jet. Long-haul zero-emission aviation will be the next multi-hundred-billion-dollar aerospace market. The same RFC and military-industry partnership that delivers the American jet will license the technology, export airport infrastructure designs, and anchor a global supply chain running through U.S. factories. American firms will also partner directly with foreign airports to retrofit their hydrogen handling, storage, and refueling systems so they can accept the new American fleet. This is how American aerospace and engineering firms built the original jet age: American planes flying to American-designed airports around the world, fueled and serviced with American equipment. The Mission will run the same playbook for the next generation.

Green hydrogen supply. Hydrogen-powered aviation depends on green hydrogen reaching roughly $2/kg, down from today's typical unsubsidized range of roughly $3 to $8/kg, with the best-resource regions already near the low end. The MFA will substantially step up green hydrogen production first for shipping and fertilizer, where demand is immediate and the technology is closer to ready. The guaranteed offtake from those sectors will pull production costs down and let further applications, including aviation, take hold.

Expand NASA aeronautics. NASA's aeronautics research is a small fraction of its space program, even though its labs and wind tunnels have historically been the federal backbone of American aviation R&D. The Mission will substantially expand NASA aeronautics for research that bears on the long-haul jet, the regional electric fleet, and the SAF supply chain: airframe design, propulsion testing, materials science, and certification.

Carbon-free supersonic and hypersonic R&D. A Manhattan Projects team will study carbon-free supersonic and hypersonic flight. Neither is a focus of this chapter, but both belong in the federal R&D portfolio so the United States stays competitive on the next generation of aircraft design.

What this delivers: The world's first commercial zero-emission long-haul jet, built in America (primary path: hydrogen, with extended-range electric held in reserve through the parallel Manhattan Projects battery program). Hydrogen handling and refueling at the lead U.S. hub airports, supplied by a mix of on-site production and external production hubs serving shipping and fertilizer. A global aerospace industry anchored in the United States. An American aerospace sector revitalized by the hardest engineering challenge of the generation, with the public holding equity and royalty stakes in the industry its investment created.

Solution 2: Build a Regional Electric Aircraft Industry

A domestic electric aircraft industry is the near-term cornerstone of the next era of American aviation. If the Manhattan Projects battery breakthroughs arrive on schedule, it will also be the foundation of a much larger long-haul electric fleet. The RFC will stand the industry up from scratch, financing factories, certifying aircraft, and supplying the first regional electric fleet in commercial service anywhere in the world.

Scope: ultra-short-haul, 100 to 250 miles to start. Current commercial battery technology (roughly 150 to 220 Wh/kg at the pack level today, with the leading edge approaching 250 Wh/kg) limits electric aircraft to regional routes today. This covers commuter flights, island-hopping, and short intercity routes that currently burn jet fuel in small turboprops. The Manhattan Projects battery program will push the energy-density frontier hard, and if it succeeds beyond current expectations the scope of this industry will extend to medium- and longer-haul routes. But the mission will not wait for breakthroughs. It will deploy what works today.

Build a domestic industry from scratch. No U.S. company has yet reached commercial-scale annual production of a type-certificated electric aircraft. Beta Technologies has opened a Vermont facility designed for up to 300 aircraft per year and is producing ALIA CX300s ahead of expected FAA type certification; a handful of other domestic manufacturers are in the prototype and pre-production stage. The RFC will finance factory construction and take equity stakes in the most promising domestic manufacturers. This is the public venture capital function: kick-starting an industry where private capital alone has not been able to deliver production-volume manufacturing.

FAA certification. The FAA's electric aircraft certification process is underway through case-by-case special conditions issued under existing certification authority, but no comprehensive final rule for electric aircraft is in place. The MFA will direct the FAA to establish an expedited certification pathway for electric aircraft, modeled on the streamlined processes used for military and experimental aviation.

Airport charging infrastructure. Electric aircraft need high-power charging fast enough to turn a regional plane around in the same window as a refueling stop. The RFC will finance charging installations at every major hub, starting with the top U.S. hubs in the first years of the Mission and extending to every commercial airport served by the certified electric fleet by the end of the decade. The Clean Power Mission's distribution-grid buildout provides the feeder capacity. Building the charging infrastructure in lockstep with the aircraft factories removes the last logistical barrier to scaling the electric fleet.

Slot access at major hubs. At capacity-constrained airports, the RFC-financed electric aircraft fleet and other new entrants will receive guaranteed slot access, giving the domestic electric aircraft industry a clear path to market rather than being locked out by incumbents.

Advanced Market Commitments. An Advanced Market Commitment from the federal government guaranteeing it will buy electric aircraft for all federal regional travel will anchor demand and de-risk the first production runs, the same mechanism the government used to stand up vaccines, semiconductors, and other strategic industries.

Fewer short-haul flights in the first place. The Mission for Public Transport will invest heavily in conventional and high-speed rail, intercity bus service, and regional transit connections. Many of the short-haul routes that electric aircraft would serve are better replaced by trains and buses altogether.

What this delivers: Certified electric aircraft serving regional routes within five years. A domestic electric aircraft manufacturing industry that did not exist before. Airport charging infrastructure at every major U.S. hub. Industrial capacity and workforce skills that transfer to the long-haul moonshot as it matures, whatever the winning technology. Federal procurement anchoring the first production runs. Slot access at major hubs that lets the industry reach scale.

Solution 3: Use Sustainable Aviation Fuel as a Bridge to a Clean Future

The long-term goal is zero-emission long-haul flight. Until that day comes, sustainable aviation fuel is the bridge. SAF is clean liquid fuel that works in existing jet engines. It will start cutting emissions from long-haul flights immediately, using the planes the country already has, while the long-haul zero-emission fleet matures. Every SAF pathway hits a hard supply ceiling: biomass on one side, captured CO₂ on the other. SAF cannot fully cover aviation demand on its own. That is exactly why the long-haul moonshot must run in parallel.

SAF is a bridge, not the destination. Even the cleanest SAF is not zero-emission. Leading pathways — especially waste-fat and waste-oil HEFA — deliver around 60 to 80 percent emissions reductions over fossil jet fuel, not 100 percent, and weaker feedstocks can deliver far less. Waste oils, agricultural residues, and cellulosic biomass each hit hard supply ceilings long before they can meet full global aviation demand. The next pathway is e-SAF, which takes green hydrogen, reacts it with captured carbon dioxide, and chemically assembles the result into kerosene. E-SAF needs no biomass, but it does need captured CO₂. Expert consensus is that the large majority of captured CO₂ must be permanently buried in geological storage to deliver the negative emissions the climate math requires, not recycled into fuel. That leaves e-SAF capped below full aviation demand as well. E-SAF is also expensive and energy-intensive, and the green hydrogen that goes into making it can fly aircraft directly with far fewer conversion losses. SAF plants are typical industrial assets with multi-decade operating lifetimes, so over-committing to SAF now locks in decades of continued fossil-like aircraft operation and diverts capital from the long-haul zero-emission transition. The Mission will treat SAF as a decarbonization bridge. The industry will be built fast, run hard during the long-haul zero-emission transition, and wind down as the new aircraft come online.

Pay airlines to make the switch. Rather than mandate SAF use, the Mission will subsidize it. The RFC will finance airlines that retrofit their fleets to handle higher SAF blends and commit to larger offtake volumes, with the most generous packages reserved for first movers. A revived and expanded federal SAF tax credit will close the price gap between SAF and fossil jet fuel at the pump. Federal departments and the military will be early SAF customers, anchoring demand for the first wave of refinery output. Aside from the temporary IRA-era 40B blender credit and the new technology-neutral 45Z clean fuel credit, the U.S. has no durable aviation-specific federal fuel program. The main volume-driving programs — the California LCFS and federal RFS — were not designed for SAF, which can only opt in as a side benefit. The Mission will create the first durable aviation-specific federal support, built entirely on carrots rather than mandates.

RFC investment in SAF production. SAF facilities are capital-intensive, first-of-a-kind plants, exactly the risk profile the RFC is designed for. The RFC will finance cellulosic biofuel refineries, waste-to-fuel facilities, and e-SAF plants. Green hydrogen infrastructure feeding e-SAF production connects directly to the Hydrogen chapter's electrolyzer buildout.

Don't pick one winner. SAF is a category, not a single technology, and each pathway has different costs, timelines, and feedstock constraints:

• Waste-based biofuels (municipal waste, agricultural residues, used cooking oil) are the cheapest and most available today. The U.S. has more waste and residue feedstock than Europe.
• Cellulosic biofuels (forestry residues, energy crops) can scale further but need first-of-a-kind production facilities. Cellulosic feedstock is also the route to bio-aromatics, the synthesized aromatic molecules that pure 100 percent SAF needs in place of the fossil aromatics blended into today's jet fuel. Bio-aromatics production is a dedicated RFC investment line and a Manhattan Projects research target.
• E-SAF (synthetic fuel made from green hydrogen and captured CO₂) is the only pathway not bottlenecked by biomass feedstock, but the most expensive and energy-intensive of the three.

The RFC will finance facilities across all three pathways, maintaining a diversified portfolio rather than gambling on a single technology.

What this delivers: Immediate emissions reductions from the existing long-haul fleet without waiting for new aircraft. A domestic SAF industry that reduces dependence on imported fossil jet fuel. Lower aromatic content in the fuel supply, which also cuts the persistent contrails that are themselves a meaningful non-CO₂ warming forcing. A bridge that buys time for the long-haul zero-emission fleet to mature.

Presidential Leadership

During the campaign, the candidate will make zero-emission aviation a signature issue, emphasizing both the economic and national security advantages of the transition. Events will include rallies at current and former aerospace manufacturing regions across the country, promising new waves of work. Stump speeches will name the Apollo partnership, the regional electric fleet, the airline retrofit financing program, and the revived SAF tax credit as vital to the future of our transport system. The candidate will promise a generational job pipeline of aerospace engineers, factory workers, electrolyzer operators, and airport crews nationwide.

During the transition, the president's team will identify the first wave of hub airports for hydrogen and charging buildout, refinery sites for SAF production, and manufacturing regions for the regional electric aircraft industry. The Department of Defense will begin formal site selection for the first military hydrogen aircraft hosts. The team will negotiate memoranda of understanding with governors of major aerospace states to align state-level permitting, workforce training, and infrastructure dollars with the federal push. NASA, DOE, FAA, and DOD leadership will coordinate around the Apollo partnership's structure before inauguration, with COTS-style contract templates ready to issue on Day One. The Department of Commerce will pre-commit to bulk procurement frameworks for electric aircraft from the most promising domestic manufacturers. Legislative counsel will pre-stage the full Day One legislative package so it is ready to pass at inauguration.

On Day One, the president will sign a coordinated package of executive orders. The first will charter the Apollo long-haul partnership, directing DOD, NASA, DOE, and the RFC to issue the first COTS-model contracts within 90 days. A second will direct all federal regional travel to transition to certified electric aircraft, and will instruct GSA to pre-purchase fleet orders from RFC-financed manufacturers. A third will direct the FAA to publish draft rulemaking on the expedited electric-aircraft certification pathway within 90 days and final rules within 12 months. A fourth will direct every federal department or agency with an aircraft fleet (DOD, USDA, Interior, DHS, and the U.S. Postal Service) to begin transition planning for electric and hydrogen replacements. A fifth will direct NASA to reprogram its aeronautics budget toward the Mission's research priorities and submit an expanded budget request. A sixth will direct every commercial airport receiving federal funds to include hydrogen-handling and high-power-charging infrastructure in its next master plan update. Alongside the executive package, Congress will pass the Day One legislation drafted during the transition. The bills will include the revived SAF tax credit, the statutory framework for airline retrofit financing, the FAA certification authorization, and the Apollo partnership funding line.

What the Ten-Year Mission Delivers

Foundations Laid by Year 1 (2030)

• Federal SAF tax credit revived and expanded; RFC airline retrofit financing program operational
• First RFC-financed SAF production facilities breaking ground (waste-based, cellulosic)
• Expedited FAA certification pathway for electric aircraft in effect, first manufacturer applications filed
• RFC equity investments in 2-3 domestic electric aircraft manufacturers committed
• Apollo-scale long-haul aviation partnership launched, hydrogen R&D contracts awarded, parallel Manhattan Projects battery energy-density track underway
• Airport hydrogen production and infrastructure studies underway at major hubs
• Airport electric aircraft charging infrastructure planning underway at top hubs, first installations beginning

First Flights by Year 5 (2034)

• SAF blending at meaningful percentages, domestic production scaling
• New commercial aircraft delivered by Airbus and Boeing, certified for 100 percent SAF; retrofits underway for the existing fleet
• First e-SAF plants operational, fed by green hydrogen from the Hydrogen Mission
• First bio-aromatics pilot plants online, supplying the aromatic molecules that pure 100 percent SAF requires
• First electric aircraft types receiving FAA certification and entering regional commercial service
• Domestic electric aircraft manufacturing facility operational
• Airport hydrogen handling and refueling infrastructure under construction at major hubs, with on-site production at the hubs where it makes sense
• Airport electric charging operational at the first hubs served by certified electric aircraft
• Long-haul prototype full-scale ground testing complete (primary path: hydrogen)

Industry Established by Year 10 (2039)

• Majority of domestic jet fuel blended with SAF; the fleet is 100 percent SAF capable, with bio-aromatics and e-SAF supplying the high-blend share
• Domestic SAF industry producing at scale across multiple pathways
• Domestic electric aircraft industry self-sustaining
• Airport hydrogen handling and refueling operational at the lead U.S. hub airports, supplied by a mix of on-site production and external production hubs, with the network growing alongside the commercial fleet
• Electric aircraft charging operational at every major U.S. hub airport
• Long-haul prototype in-flight testing at commercial scale (primary path: hydrogen)
• United States ahead of Europe and Asia in long-haul zero-emission aviation engineering, factory capacity, and airport readiness
• Electric aircraft serving short-haul regional routes across the country, including communities that lost service

The Moonshot Lands beyond Year 10 (2040-2045)

• First commercial zero-emission long-haul flights (primary path: hydrogen)
• Airport hydrogen network expanding to secondary hubs
• Green hydrogen at or approaching $2/kg, making the hydrogen path economically viable
• Zero-emission long-haul aviation becomes a commercial reality