Doing the Math: Optimizing Routing and Scheduling for UAM Fleet Management Using Quantum Annealing

By Dave Clarke | June 15, 2025

Writing in Scientific Reports, seven researchers from Japan’s Tohuku University and Sumitomo Corporation proposed a plan to optimize how urban air mobility (UAM) operators, infrastructure managers, and others in the UAM ecosystem manage routing and scheduling using quantum annealing. Quantum annealing, a quantum computing process, uses quantum fluctuations to find the best solution to an optimization…

Read More

What Can UAM Operators Do to Ensure They Gain Passengers’ Acceptance of Air Taxis?

By Dave Clarke | June 8, 2025

A study conducted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) reveals what is and isn’t important to gain passengers’ acceptance of urban air mobility (UAM) air taxi services. While the flights were simulated, the sentiments expressed were real. The researchers set up a mixed reality (MR) Air Taxi Simulator merging a real-world environment with a computer-generated…

Read More

The Temperature’s Falling While the UAM Market Is Heating Up

By Dave Clarke | June 1, 2025

At the heart of the impending urban air mobility (UAM) revolution are the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that will rise to the occasion to transport people and products from Point A to Point B. At the heart of those eVTOLs are the lithium-ion batteries powering their flight. Lithium-ion batteries, however, have an…

Read More

Getting Together – UAMs and NAS

By Dave Clarke | May 25, 2025

Writing in the Texas A&M Law Arguendo, Robert Notari, a Juris Doctor candidate, helicopter pilot, and certified flight instructor, raises the questions “AUTONOMY NOW?: IS IT TIME TO START INTEGRATING (AUTONOMOUS) URBAN AIR MOBILITY VEHICLES INTO THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM?” Inasmuch as auto manufacturers have yet to master autonomous-driving vehicles, it may be premature to ask…

Read More

Industry

Take Charge! Putting the e in eVTOL

By Dave Clarke | August 24, 2024 | Comments Off on Take Charge! Putting the e in eVTOL

In their research paper, “Novel battery power capability assessment for improved eVTOL aircraft landing,” researchers Ollie Hatherall, Anup Barai, Mona Faraji Niri, and James Marco from the Energy Innovation Centre, WMG, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom and Zeyuan Wang from Vertical Aerospace Group Ltd in Bristol, United Kingdom sought to find innovative ways to develop a power testing capability testing framework. They sought…

Read More