The Promise of AAM for Business Aviation
This 12 months, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) showcased advanced air mobility (AAM) at its annual Business Aviation Conference and Expo (BACE). One such panel, moderated by Robin Reidel, McKinsey and Company, included Tim Arel of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Dan Dalton from Wisk, Dan Elwell of Elwell and Associates (representing Joby as a Board Member) and Oliver Reinhardt from Volocopter. The group highlighted the promise of AAM for the business aviation industry and society as a complete. This text synopsizes the discussion. (*Note – the words are those of the creator and never verbatim).
Reidel (Moderator): Where are each of today in your progress towards AAM?
Reinhardt (Volocopter): At Volocopter, we’re flying here in Vegas during all three days of the conference, at Henderson airport. Seeing is believing. It is a reality. We’re in the midst of the kind certification process for our 2-seater piloted aircraft for urban missions, the VoloCity. We’re targeting EASA approval in the center next 12 months, with FAA certification to follow. We’re able to operate late next summer within the Paris Olympics, followed by operations in Rome, then on the World Expo in Osaka, Japan and in Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city, Neom.
Elwell (Joby): Joby goes to get flying in 2026, with business operations globally by 2028. Joby’s been flying full scale models since 2017. We have now flown 30,000 miles, with the overwhelming majority of those remotely operated. We have now plans to enter service with a pilot and 4 passengers. We recently delivered our first production aircraft to U.S. Air Force. We’re breaking ground on our first manufacturing plant within the U.S. in Ohio. We have now regulatory hurdles to recover from, but we are going to get past them and show to the worldwide flying public what eVTOLs are all about.
Dalton (Wisk): Unlike these other firms who could have a piloted aircraft initially, we’re developing the fully autonomous air taxi from the beginning. After 13 years and 5 previous generations of aircraft, we will likely be undergoing type certification with our sixth generation Cora.
We have now been super focused on airspace integration and community engagement. One key challenge is learn how to tie what is going on on the national level with the tip users. We flew at OshKosh this 12 months and want to do more flight testing soon. We will likely be doing a little of that testing in LA on the business airport there.
Arel (FAA): We proceed to take the crawl-walk-run approach so we are able to integrate these aircraft in a responsible manner. In a way, it’s a little easier with AAM, than with drones. eVTOLs can talk and squawk and be seen on our surveillance systems and talk over with other aircraft. We’re able to take those aircraft and integrate them. Initially, we are going to likely have eVTOLs use helicopter routes, like we do with Ospreys.
![Advanced Air Mobility, AAM, NBAA BACE, Wisk](https://dronelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG-5505.jpg)
Wisk on the NBAA BACE event.
Reidel: There are lots of challenges for AAM. What must go right in the following 2-3 years to make AAM a reality?
Reinhardt (Volocopter): The devil is in the small print. We began in 2011. By 2016 we were doing a little flying with a pilot. From the technology standpoint, using a pure multirotor design, we’ve got that covered. On the operational side, there are hurdles. For instance, for Paris, where we will likely be connecting between 2 big airports with crossing runways, we plotted out 32 different variants of possible flight routes, once we began planning. Alternate landing sites can present physics and battery life issues. Because of this Volocopter is constructing an entire ecosystem, including maintenance, charging and more. Build up this whole network is manageable but difficult.
Elwell (Joby): I don’t view infrastructure as a challenge. We have now heliports, large parking lots, rooftops and even open spaces in clover leafs on highways. So long as we now have a charging capability, any of those places can work. Our vision by making a partnership with Uber is that this: the Uber will pick you up, take you to the vertiport in 5 minutes, our aircraft will fly you to your destination and there will likely be an Uber hookup on the opposite end. That said, one challenge is dispelling the parable that that is only for the rich. For conventional aviation, the most important expenses are pilots and fuel. We’re electric and can eventually be pilotless. Anyone should have the ability to go 25-30 miles in a Joby eVTOL for the worth of an Uber Black. We plan to avoid wasting a billion people an hour a day. To do that, the flights should be between points which can be prohibitive right away or quicker.
Dalton (Wisk): I’m going to show the challenge query into one about opportunity. We see opportunity in autonomy and decided to take autonomy on, right from the start. We have now included autonomy within the product and tech development, have been working with regulators to make sure it’s secure, reliable and that we will likely be a superb partner within the airspace. All of that proves the business case. We’ve made great progress with the technology, while working closely with the regulators at the identical time. On the business side, we now have a lot capability as a totally owned subsidiary of Boeing. This permits us to tap into Boeing’s holistic business model globally. Autonomy will enable us to supply air taxi services to more people, which is able to ultimately reduce the worth.
Arel (FAA): For the FAA, it’s all about equitable access to the airspace. These firms are moving at great speed relative to aviation. Attending to scale will likely be a challenge. We have now congested runways already. So, how do you manage that? We recently published Innovate 28 to stipulate a few of the requirements. We even have AAM testing efforts across the country geared toward a totally integrated system in time for the LA basin Olympics. Some will likely be individual efforts and a few will likely be mixed aviation trials.
![](https://dronelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Volocopter-in-the-United-States_-Combining-Physical-Digital-UAM-Experiences-scaled.jpg)
Volocopter showcases its VoloCity on the CoMotionLA event
Reidel (Moderator): What works and what doesn’t work to entice the general public with regard to AAM?
Reinhardt (Volocopter): The bottom line is going out and flying the aircraft. We have now been flying in Texas and will likely be flying in Florida. After we fly, we conduct dedicated studies with the schools in the world with regard to the perception of the general public. We ask the identical questions before and after our fights. After the flights, the answers have been overwhelmingly positive. So what we’d like to maintain doing is to fly publicly and visibly. That’s the clear strategy to persuade everyone there may be nothing to fear. We have now flown in Helsinki and in South Korea with Air Traffic Control (ATC), to learn and train. That’s what we’d like. That’s what helps to construct positive and supportive perception. Then it feels positive and smooth.
Reidel (Moderator): Noise appears to be considered one of the predominant issues for the general public, in introducing latest aircraft. What are your thoughts on that?
Arel (FAA): It’s more about safety, to achieve public trust. And in the case of noise, the query is: Are you a responsible member of the community? Where do you use and the way do you use? Firms need to contemplate flight profiles which can be best for the community from landing, takeoff, point A to point B, flight altitudes and the profile of aircraft they’re flying. I also cannot stress community engagement enough.
Reidel (Moderator): AAM is exclusive in that the OEMs are going to be the manufacturer and the airline or the ride sharers. How will this work?
Elwell (Joby): We are able to do that like a legacy airline. Legacy systems are within the cloud also. So that you don’t need that infrastructure. But at the least for the primary decade or more, the creators will likely be those who might want to operate them. Possibly in the long run, OEMs can hand the operations off.
Reinhardt (Volocopter): Considered one of the important thing reasons I’m with Volocopter is because they were AAM holistically, in the total vertical. I assumed, “Yes, I can trust in that project, I can imagine in it.” It was not about constructing a flowery aircraft and hoping others will imagine in it. We’re
doing something latest, so we controlled the operations, at first. We have now been selling them to emergency medical services in Germany. Also, as soon as we leave our own territory, ownership restrictions for out of country OEMs would require someone locally to operate it. We designed our digital platforms to be easier to handle this. We’re all electric so we are able to manage all of the operational data and predictive maintenance etc. using our VoloIQ.
Dalton (Wisk): For Wisk, the worth proposition to our partners is big. We’re providing mobility as a service. Our partners can offer this to their customers on a contract. They don’t need to construct their very own flight departments etc.
Reidel (Moderator): What changes might come about on account of these latest technologies?
Arel (FAA): NextGen is NowGen. We have now data communications that improve efficiency and the protection of current operations. We even have legacy systems. We have now to serve systems from Piper Cub to the VoloCity. We have now began a conversation about getting a couple of things across the finish line after which hitting the reset button. We are able to’t keep meeting with drones, eVTOLS and space individually. They should be addressed together. We’re focused right away on clearing the backlog of traditional operations. After that, it’s time to hit that reset button.
![Joby Aviation, Advanced Air Mobility, AAM](https://dronelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Joby-Edwards-1.jpg)
Joby Aviation
Reidel (Moderator): What are the technologies which can be next generation and the way do they impact the whole system?
Dalton (Wisk): With a clean sheet aircraft, you possibly can construct in all of those NextGen technologies from the beginning. Autonomous flights like ours are going to be predictable and boring. They are going to just go backwards and forwards across ATC’s screen like Pong. The sport changer will likely be controller pilot data link conditions (CPDLC), because this could reduce the opportunity of miscommunication that you simply get with analog radios etc. (Note: CPDLC is a two-way data-link system by which controllers can transmit non urgent ‘strategic messages to an aircraft as an alternative choice to voice communications. The message is displayed on a flight deck visual display.)
Reinhardt (Volocopter): You could decouple systems of today from NextGen. We have now the unique ability to get big data from the information stream. This provides full lifecycle data in a highly granular way across the total value stream. Connecting this to principles of SMS (safety management systems) will give us a novel opportunity to gather trends, especially with AI algorithms. Things like data within the cloud, AI/ML are key and present interesting challenges that we’ll need to handle with the civil aviation authorities.
Elwell (Joby): I’m going to concentrate on people, not tech. We have now the most important pilot shortage in history right away. I’m enthusiastic about what we’re going to do to entice people to fly these vehicles. We could have young people fly and do 6 turnarounds and sleep in their very own beds at night while getting paid an honest wage. We have now a simulator, a flight control system designed by F35 engineers, that shows our human machine interface is the simplest we’ve ever seen. The dearth of moving parts and the redundancy of the battery packs is all very exciting.
Arel (FAA): There needs to be a cultural shift from ATC to ATM. The largest challenge is to have standardization across the industry. We want everyone to work together in that latest airspace. Cooperation and coordination has got to return together now that we’re getting out of the propriety piece.
Reidel (Moderator): What’s the most important misconception on the market about eVTOL and AAM?
Dalton (Wisk): That autonomy is in the long run. No. Autonomy is right away.
Reinhardt (Volocopter): That each one of those 100s of eVTOL vehicles will come into the market. There are 100s of designs, but are they even possible? We see some overpromising. No animal can do all the things without delay.
Arel (FAA): That the FAA is inhibiting these ops and never letting people fly. Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality. We’re actively working with responsible operators to accommodate, test and integrate these aircraft.
Elwell (Joby): That this shouldn’t be going to be a secure endeavor. I’ve never been more sure of the methodical approach to safety than what I’ve seen on this industry. Our aircraft are going to be every bit as secure, if not safer than the airlines you get on and fly today with out a second thought.
To see panels like this live, plan now to attend next 12 months’s NBAA BACE, Oct 22-Twenty fourth in Las Vegas.