Getting It Together: eVTOLs, NAS, and U-space
The time to plan for integrating national air spaces and U-space is now
July 20, 2025 |
With funding from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, researchers from Airbus Urban Mobility GmbH and the Institute of Air Transportation Systems at Hamburg University of Technology have developed what they believe is a viable plan to integrate current national air spaces with the soon to be upon us, uncrewed air space that will be ferrying passengers and cargo to and from airports, from warehouses to homes, and one day, from work to home and perhaps even home to home.
Today’s airspace systems rely on segregation, keeping aircraft apart from each other. But, as advanced air mobility (AAM) is currently envisioned, and is likely to be, the low-altitude economy will be much more densely populated and segregation alone may not suffice. Their paper, “Automated Air Traffic Control Interface Concept for Advanced Air Mobility Aircraft,” offers a “technological proof of concept for an automated air traffic control and flight execution process within controlled airspaces as well as a seamless integration with U-space. In addition, a highly reliable hybrid communication architecture is introduced to enable safe communication between these novel eVTOLs and associated ground stations.”
The paper introduced a shared manned/unmanned airspace the team dubbed ATM U-space shared airspace (AUSA) to handle uncrewed operations with dynamic airspace reconfiguration (DARs). The study makes use of four-dimensional volumetric flight intents which automatically translates these intents into flyable command and control data for an AAM vehicle. The intent data and the AAM aircraft’s position and conformance status are provided to relevant air traffic controllers in real time and allow to manipulate the flight intent as they would for conventional aircraft via conventional voice communication.
The study makes use of four-dimensional volumetric flight intents which automatically translates these intents into flyable command and control data for an AAM vehicle.
The study resulted in a working technological proof of concept for unique selling proposition (USPs) and common information service providers (CISPs). It enables a technical solution to transition from U-spaces to controlled airspaces allowing for an efficient integration of novel AAM air traffic with conventional traffic without the need for airspace integration. The study offers a possible solution to create a reliable data connection between an AAM aircraft and the associated ground station to exchange data safely with the ATC system and potentially enables a pilot in command to operate these vehicles from the ground.
Keywords: #AAM Today, #AAM, #Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management, #U-space, #Advanced Air Mobility #Air Traffic Management, #Air Traffic Control; Communication, #Navigation and Surveillance, #Command and Control
Top 3 Takeaways
- Researchers have developed what they believe is a viable plan to integrate current national air spaces with the soon to be upon us, uncrewed air space that will be ferrying passengers and cargo to and from airports, from warehouses to homes, and one day, from work to home and perhaps even home to home.
- A highly reliable hybrid communication architecture is introduced to enable safe communication between these novel eVTOLs and associated ground stations.
- The paper enables a technical solution to transition from U-spaces to controlled airspaces allowing for an efficient integration of novel AAM air traffic with conventional traffic without the need for airspace integration.
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