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A sky filled with eVTOLs

Urban Air Mobility May Require a Complete Rethink of How We Design Airspace

Much of the airspace design concepts being considered for urban air mobility (UAM) today are considered as abstract networks emphasizing safety and capacity. That’s a good thing – as far as it goes – according to Aleksandar Bauranov, a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Dr. Jasenka Rakas, a Continuing Lecturer of Civil and…

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A camera-equipped drone

It Takes Two to Advance Advanced Air Mobility

The role of digital twins in certifying AAM systems

A team of researchers from the U.S.’s Purdue University and the U.K.’s Coventry University recently published a study wherein they propose creating a digital twin for various aspects of the emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) ecosystem well under development today. Designers from Purdue’s Human Factors team CAE (computer-aided engineering) team and subject matter experts (SMEs)…

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A multitude of air taxis flying over a cityscape.

Is UAM Better Together? The Potential and Promise of Ridesharing

NASA and Purdue University Associates Unveil PANVEL

While no one knows yet exactly how much an urban air mobility (UAM) eEVTOL air taxi ride will cost per mile, chances are the initial trips won’t be cheap. And, not cheap doesn’t bode well for rapid adoption by the traveling public. But… if a cohort of passengers want to travel from the same origin-destination…

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Not Just Advanced Air Mobility, But Seamless Air Mobility

NASA engineers a solution to provide AAM for all

From a horse to a chariot, wagons to trains, cars to buses and airplanes, our transportation systems have evolved over millennia but rarely with any thought given to how we, as passengers, must navigate any or several of these systems to get us from Point A to Point B. NASA engineers and specialists Husni Idris,…

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Is Your Country Ready for Urban Air Mobility?

A Mobility as a Service Index Aims to Tell You How You Can Tell

Aviation engineers, manufacturers, urban planners, vertiport builders and operators, and regulators are rapidly approaching the day when eVTOLs will take to the skies, passengers in tow, ready to taxi them from airports to city centers and back or from a city’s south side to its north or the suburbs surrounding a metropolis. But, one key…

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Drone carrying a box for delivery.

Merchandise Delivery in the Middle — Mile, That Is

Cargo delivery in rural areas may soon see fewer trucks and more drones

Writing in Sustainability, Dr. Raj Bridgelall, an associate professor of transportation and supply chain at North Dakota State University, published the results of his study, Spatial Analysis of Middle-Mile Transport for Advanced Air Mobility: A Case Study of Rural North Dakota. The study’s objective, Dr. Bridgelall writes, was to “optimize the logistics network for high-value…

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