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Advanced Air
Mobility is Coming of Age
by David Donald
- May 23, 2023, 6:27 AM
A
mock-up of the VoloCity exhibited at an event at Le Bourget Airport with
officials involved in the Olympic project. (Photo: Volocopter)
Air mobility is on the cusp of gold. Next year, the nascent sector is
set to achieve a milestone with plans to provide all-electric air mobility
service for the Olympic Games in Paris. A partnership of companies and
authorities is collaborating to pave the way for the service that will be based
on Volocopter’s VoloCity air taxi. Hiring of pilots is due to begin before
year-end, and further Volocopter services are planned to follow in Rome in
2024 and Osaka for Expo 2025.
These plans—along with other schemes underway—mark a major transition
for the advanced air mobility (AAM) sector as it moves along the path from
PowerPoint presentations, through prototyping, to commercial service. The path
remains problematic in some areas and will not see a dramatic rise immediately,
but the successful demonstration of services will not only build public acceptance
but also build trust in further investment.
One key desire is to demystify the regulatory process, which many
potential investors have problems in understanding. However, the inevitable
rise in the AAM sector has been propelled by early interest from several major
airlines. The traditional commercial aviation sector recognizes that AAM is
another in a series of major developments that have shaped airline
travel and realizes that it is important to be in at the beginning to help
shape the sector.
The argument for electric-powered AAM is compelling: the drive for
decarbonization—largely based on synthetic aviation fuel—will not answer all of
the aviation industry’s needs. All-electric power is more than adequate to
answer near-term urban/suburban short-range requirements and even regional
range requirements out to 400 to 500 km. Long-range travel would most likely
not be transformed until other power sources, such as hydrogen, become proven,
which may not happen until the 2040s.
The technology exists already—opined one speaker at Tuesday's EBACE
Newsmaker’s Lunch—to replace 90 percent of the existing short-range turbine
helicopter fleet, while also adding accessibility to more landing sites due to
community-friendly noise levels, and reduced space and infrastructure
requirements.
Most of the world’s urban areas are ideally suited to AAM solutions,
but in some the need is more pressing than in others. Cities such as Säo
Paulo and Delhi are showing great interest given the lack of land for larger
aviation infrastructure and congested ground transportation routes. The two
main U.S. cities—Los Angeles and New York—also fall into this category,
particularly in relation to linking business districts to airports. Hong Kong,
too, is another prime candidate.
One element of AAM that still requires more harmonization is the
question of pilot licensing and rating. A factor here is that the various OEMs
have adopted differing approaches to control systems. In traditional aircraft,
the cockpit and controls generally follow a similar approach across the OEMs,
but that is not the case in the AAM sector, making a cover-all license more
difficult to define.
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