Urban Air Mobility - UAM Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) means a safe and efficient system for vehicles, piloted or not, to move passengers and cargo within a city.
Some of the barriers to urban air mobility operations include safety certification of autonomous vehicle systems, community noise impacts from vehicle operations, cyber security protections, safe airspace integration with traditional airline operations, and many others.
One of the most important certification concerns is to ensure the vehicles are safe to fly and to land, especially in emergency situations in crowded urban areas.
An example of an operational challenge is ensuring that vehicles, piloted or not, are integrated into an air traffic system in which parts of that system must be fully automated to handle the high frequency and density of projected operations.
Community acceptance of UAM operations is another challenge. While demonstrating safe and reliable operations is critically important, it is equally important that vehicle operations don’t create unacceptable community noise impacts, and that they fit into the urban land and skyscape.
CTOL: Conventional Takeoff and Landing
Thin Haul: 9-10 pax aircraft
VTOL: vertical takeoff and landing
vertiport: VTOL hubs with multiple takeoff and landing pads, as well as charging infrastructure
vertistop: a single VTOL pad with minimal infrastructure
Battery terminology
- specific energy: the amount of energy per unit weight provided by the battery, which ultimately determines the gross weight of the vehicle
- charge rate: how quickly the battery can be brought back to a nearly full charge, which determines operational idle time
- cycle life: the number of charge/discharge cycles the cell can sustain before its capacity is less than 80% of the original, which determines how often the battery must be replaced
- cost per kilowatt-hour: which determines the overall battery cost
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Fast-forwarding to a future of urban air transport
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Fantastical flying machines at CES 2018 highlight the future of urban transport
Cora, Kitty Hawk’s Air Taxi Takes Off in New Zealand
Ehang’s passenger-carrying drones look insanely impressive in first test flights
CEO takes ride in passenger drone to demonstrate that it’s safe
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