The Latest Advanced Air Mobility News

Urban Air Mobility Meets [Native] American Ingenuity

Like many Native American people, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) maintains a long-held respect for the earth and sky. But perhaps unlike some other tribes, the CNO also has a strong understanding of American-style capitalism, especially as a means to communal economic prosperity. Following in the tradition of the Wright Brothers, several years ago,…

eVTOL, UAS, and Now, Another UAM Acronym: LiDAR

When the UAM revolution takes off, there will be no shortage of acronyms. There’s already eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles), UAS (unmanned aerial systems), UAM (urban air mobility). Now add one more: LiDAR. A 50-year-old technology, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, is expected to play a key role in the development of…

NASA, Wisk, and Alaka’i Form UAM Partnership

As part of its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign (NC), NASA announced on November 16, 2020, that it had signed information exchange agreements with UAM vehicle developers, Mountain View, California-based Wisk and Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based Alaka’i Technologies. The agreements will facilitate the integration of eVTOLs and hybrid VTOLs into the U.S. national airspace. Working with…

UAM Visual Noise Pollution

With some estimates predicting as many as a half million eVTOLs, hybrid VTOLs, and other urban air vehicles traversing the world’s metropolitan skyways within a decade, a challenge looms for UAM aircraft developers and would-be operators that none alone can overcome: visual noise pollution. Airports have faced the issue of noise abatement from aircraft taking…

Advanced Air Mobility, Canadian Style

Canadians have a reputation . . . for being polite, bilingual, sort of British, sort of French, and perhaps most famously, for not being Americans. So, it should come as no surprise that their approach to urban air mobility is unique. They’re among those calling it advanced air mobility (AAM), but one wonders how long…

AFWERX Shifts UAM Initiative Into High Gear

AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force unit that fosters innovation and connections between private industry, academia, and the military, is recommending more than 250 proposals it received in response to its X20D Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), Open Topic solicitation regarding its “flying car” subject. The group is on track to be “the largest single cohort…

CS Group May Make Software for eVTOLs

“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”  – Leonardo DaVinci When the Wright Brothers lifted off at Kitty Hawk, it was a fully mechanical miracle. Today’s aircraft are a thousand times more…

eVTOLs and Flying Cars Not Quite Cleared for Takeoff

“Ground control to Major Tom. Ground control to Major Tom.” (David Bowie flashback.) According to its latest reporting, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is managing roughly 16.1 million flights annually, averaging about 44,000 flights daily. That’s about 5,400 flights at any given moment. The advent of urban air mobility (AKA advanced air mobility) is…

Vertical Aerospace Hires Tim Williams as Chief Engineer

Tim Williams was at year 33 with Rolls-Royce—the last 10 as a Chief Engineer—when he was contacted by a recruiter. Calling the world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines “a superb company to work for,” he thought he’d dispatch the recruiter by saying the only thing that could tempt him was “a much bigger challenge.” And…

NASA Series to Lead the Way in Making eVTOLs a Reality in the US

Just a few years ago, as people in the aviation field discussed how eVTOLs (called flying cars in popular culture) might be integrated into existing airspace, the term urban air mobility (UAM) came into being. Coining it that made sense. After all, a Jetson-like cityscape is what many people think of when they imagine vertical…

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