Imagine self-piloted passenger aircraft designed for urban areas.
A3 by Airbus and AUVSI, a non-profit organization devoted to advancing unmanned systems and robotics, is calling on aviation and aerospace industry leaders, regulators and technologists to develop standards and regulatory pathways required to make this dream a reality.
“The ability to be transported safely and quickly through a city in a self-piloted aircraft is no longer science fiction,” said Rodin Lyasoff, CEO of A3 by Airbus.
“Advances in propulsion, battery performance, air traffic management, autonomy and connectivity mean that this mode of transportation is capable of benefiting millions of people in years, not decades,” Lyasoff added. “Urban Air Mobility will significantly change how we live and work for the better, but bridging from feasibility to reality will require close cooperation between the public and private sectors to define appropriate regulations.”
A3 and AUVSI recently held a workshop at the Airbus Experience Center in Washington, DC, which included participants from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), industry groups and aerospace companies, to focus on developing solutions in certification and air traffic management.
Autonomous passenger aircraft currently have no clear path to certification. Thus, regulators and industry leaders must partner to develop certification pathways specific to these types of aircraft, including airworthiness standards for Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL), electric propulsion, fly-by-wire systems, software and sense-and-avoid systems.
These vehicles will require safe, secure and scalable air traffic management solutions to enable point-to-point self-piloted operations. That system must operate to keep manned and unmanned aircraft safe and enable remote sensing applications. This would necessarily include rules that allow Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations and operations over populated areas.
“Industry and regulatory leaders alike recognize the complexity of integrating automated passenger aircraft into urban airspace,” said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI.
“And, just as importantly, they recognize the need to fully partner in developing the standards and rules needed to ensure successful development of this class of aircraft, as well as safe and efficient operations. Last week’s discussion is a great demonstration of commitment to that joint approach and the future progress we can expect as a result.”
Current A3 projects include Vahana, Voom and Transpose . Read about the development of Vahana, a self-piloted flying vehicle platform for individual passenger and cargo transport, here.
The organization believes that the target market for such vehicles is transport service providers, based on a system that could operate similarly to ride-hailing services, with the use of a mobile app to book a flight. A3 believes that global demand for this category of aircraft can support fleets of millions of vehicles worldwide. Flight tests of a full-scale vehicle prototype are slated for the end of this year.
A3 is also developing Voom, an effort to make helicopter transport accessible and affordable to the broader traveling public, especially in markets where ground transportation is congested or unreliable. The project centers on a mobile web platform that connects the rider with licensed air taxi companies. Voom is currently conducting a beta program in São Paulo, Brazil.
You can learn more about another Airbus project, the Pop.Up, by reading more with us here.
For more information, visit the A3 by Airgroup and AUVSI websites.