Urban Air Mobility

Passengers onboard an eVTOL

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

Communicate, communicate, communicate

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…

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Give the People What They Want — Integrated Air Mobility-as-a-Service

Commuters expressed their commuting preferences in this study from Hiroshima University

As urban air mobility prepares for takeoff in cities around the world, it’s important to understand that this new iteration of the transportation landscape doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The people who will use the services will need to understand how to integrate it into their travel plans. To learn more about these consumers’ preferences,…

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

A quantum leap for UAM routing and scheduling.

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…

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View of a vertiport from above.

Vertiports vs. Heliports — An overview

Emily Lambert, a project manager with Texas Department of Transportation recently published a guide that will be of interest and use to DOT engineers and planners as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) transitions from a standalone Vertiport Design Advisory Circular to a Unified Vertical Lift Infrastructures AC by 2027. Find the guide here.

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What Would a Successful AAM Air Shuttle Network Look Like?

Sufficient vertiports strategically placed may be the key

As discussions evolve around the impending introduction of advanced air mobility (AAM) into the fabric of global air transportation systems around the globe much of the dialogue has centered around the aircraft — electric vertical takeoff and landing, eVTOLs — at the heart of the revolution. But the success of AAM is about much more…

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What Would a Successful AAM Air Shuttle Network Look?

Sufficient vertiports strategically placed are the key

As discussions evolve around the introduction of advanced air mobility (AAM) into the fabric of global air transportation systems much of the dialogue has centered around the aircraft — electric vertical takeoff and landing, eVTOLs — at the heart of the revolution. But the success of AAM is about much more than aircraft. Three researchers,…

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