Louisiana Flew the First Uncrewed Aircraft Under the FAA’s eVTOL Pilot Program

Louisiana became the first state in the federal eVTOL Integration Pilot Program to fly an aircraft with nobody on board, after Elroy Air’s uncrewed Chaparral cargo flights from Houma-Terrebonne Airport in late August 2026, according to Aviation Week.

The Chaparral is an autonomous cargo aircraft — a hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing design built to move freight, not people. Flying it with no pilot on board under the federal pilot program is a regulatory milestone: it tests how uncrewed aircraft share airspace, communicate with air traffic control and handle emergencies without a human in the loop.

There is a catch worth noting. Neither the federal program nor the state fund has put money behind the Louisiana effort yet, according to the same reporting — the flights happened, but the funding has not. That is a familiar pattern in advanced air mobility: the technology is often ahead of the money.

Even so, first matters in a race where states are competing to host the air-taxi industry. Louisiana’s claim is now on the record, and other states in the pilot program will be measured against it.