UK. Eve Air Mobility has announced the completion of the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for airspace integration of urban air mobility (UAM) in the UK.
The work has been carried out by the UK Air Mobility Consortium, whose partners include air traffic control expert NATS, Heathrow Airport, London City Airport, Skyports and Atech. It also involves electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft pioneers Volocopter, Vertical Aerospace and Embraer company Eve, which is leading the consortium.
“The infrastructure required to support the future implementation of urban air mobility will be significant and a key element for the success of this new sector. The significant detail in this report and its real-world scenario means it paves the way to make UAM a reality” – UK Civil Aviation Authority Innovation Services Lead Frederic Laugere
The project is being developed in partnership with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Innovation Hub through its Regulatory Sandbox.
The comprehensive 84-page CONOPS document was developed as a London-centric case study, transporting passengers within a network of vertiports between Heathrow Airport and London City Airport. The consortium followed a rigorous process to develop the concepts, including interactive reviews from the CAA Innovation Hub and a comprehensive range of its subject matter experts, incorporating their feedback into the final document.
It also leveraged quantitative data derived from computer modelling simulations to support its proposed concepts, as well as a series of stakeholder engagement activities to better understand stakeholder concerns and needs related to UAM operations.
The CAA’s Regulatory Sandbox offers organisations or consortia the opportunity to test and trial the viability of their solutions, while also helping the regulator shape future regulations in line with their novel technologies and concepts.
and White City. An artist impression of a Skyports vertiport is pictured above, with a computer-generated impression of the inside of the facility below.
In January 2021, the consortium was selected by the CAA to join the Sandbox on its Future Air Mobility Challenge to develop a strategic framework that will define the low-level airspace designs, procedures and infrastructure for safely integrating new types of UAM operations across the UK.
The first major milestone from the project was the compilation of a baseline describing key regulatory challenges which need to be addressed to enable safe, efficient and scalable zero-emission UAM operations.
The consortium used this baseline to identify which areas to focus on in order to ensure the proposed concepts consider the criteria previously aligned with the regulator.
UK CAA Innovation Services Lead Frederic Laugere said: “The infrastructure required to support the future implementation of urban air mobility will be significant and a key element for the success of this new sector. The significant detail in this report and its real-world scenario means it paves the way to make UAM a reality.”
Eve Co-CEO Andre Stein said: “This CONOPS focuses primarily on the solutions necessary for near-term challenges that could impact initial commercial operations. The London use case and CONOPS provide a tangible example for the CAA to better understand the aims of UAM and support the development of future regulations accordingly. Our work also indicates how thriving the market for eVTOL flights in the UK will be in the future.”
Reacting to the CONOPS release on LinkedIn, Volocopter said: “Volocopter partnered with the UK’s CAA in 2019 and has been involved in developing the UAM ecosystem in the London area ever since. Our understanding and expertise on matters related to air operations, aircraft performance, airspace integration, and vertiport planning have been essential in moving the project forward.
“London is an exciting but complex destination with a myriad of public transportation options, both under- and overground. We are looking forward to taking further steps toward UAM integration with the UK’s CAA and NATS, who have shown real interest in the project.”
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