Airbus-led project to bring urban air mobility to Germany
Those who dream of truly efficient public transport with minimal disruptions may soon have their prayers answered thanks to a new initiative set to pave the way for the development of urban air mobility in Germany.
The Air Mobility Initiative (AMI) brings together various companies, communities and research institutes, including Airbus, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Flugsicherung, Droniq and SkyFive, among others, that could finally bring this exciting new tech to the streets of Europe's largest economy.
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The project has been jointly funded by the Free State of Bavaria and Germany's Federal Government, which provided €17 million and €24 million respectively, and will oversee several research projects in a bid to make air mobility between cities a reality.
It will target the creation of electric aircraft, management systems and the building of vertiports.
The first step will be to assess the logistics, including legal, social and technological hurdles, of setting up new eVTOL infrastructure before real-life demonstrations are held.
"In many parts of the world, eVTOLs will offer a whole new mobility service in the near future," said Markus May, Head of Operations for urban air mobility at Airbus.
"[The AMI partners] are aware that the introduction of such a system requires the cooperation of many players with different competencies. Our goal is to build a transport service that benefits society and this is what we are setting up here in Bavaria.”
Work on the individual projects began in January 2022 with test flights scheduled to take place around the city of Ingolstadt.
Including the funding from the two authorities, total expenditure is expected to reach around €86 million during the three-year trial.
"We will examine the various elements of such an air transport system in realistic projects to gain an accurate picture of the technical and regulatory requirements," said Andreas Thellmann the head of the Air Mobility Initiative.
"Electric air transport can enhance public transport, airports and time-critical mobility services, it will be environmentally friendly, quiet and safe."
The aircraft for the project will be made by Airbus in collaboration with Diehl Aerospace, the University of Stuttgart and other partners. This will see test flights that assess its safety and efficiency on longer flights between cities as well as takeoff tests simulating a vertiport environment which will be handled by the various airports and local communities associated with the project.
These tests will be monitored using an "Unmanned Traffic Management" system to be developed by SkyFive and Echostar Mobile.
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"Reliable data connectivity between the aircraft and the ground is a key enabler of Urban Air Mobility, “ said SkyFive CEO Thorsten Robrecht.
"The AMI gives us an opportunity to deploy Air-to-Ground and satellite technologies in a real-world environment and provide Connectivity Network Services to various stakeholders of the group."
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