Collaboration Between ‘Old’ and ‘New’ is key to UAM Success

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the development in the UAM sector, and many see that as positive insofar as it has ushered in a new era of an appetite for change and to accelerate its implementation. Moreover, regulatory flight waivers during the crisis have allowed development to be undertaken more freely with regard to flight-testing. Covid-19 has also given some companies a chance to demonstrate the benefits of electric aviation. China’s EHang, for instance, has been using its autonomous air vehicles to deliver medical supplies and personnel to hospitals during the crisis.

It has not been good news for everyone, though. “This is a world of haves and have-nots,” said Kristen Bartok Touw, co-CEO with Air Finance. “I haven’t seen people being able to raise the capital that we would like during Covid. I do have a fear that it will be a world in which the start-ups that were able to raise significant capital prior to Covid are still able to innovate and get their work done, and those are the companies that will benefit and accelerate.” Those not able to raise capital will struggle, she added.

This may or may not be a blessing in disguise for the sector as a whole. Most in the industry consider the figure of at least 292 electric platforms in development far too great, and it is those with more mature, more consortium-driven user cases that appear most likely to find traction.

Other speakers also raised concerns that Covid had introduced uncertainties, mainly at the societal level. The nature of the “workplace” and that of business travel in the future is far from certain, nor are the best uses for electric aviation. Local authorities might not consider short-range, intra-urban travel as attractive a proposition as using eVTOL machines to bring commuters into the city from outlying areas to relieve some of the burden on ground transportation.

While the focus now centers mainly on the vehicles themselves, the question of infrastructure is increasingly becoming the main topic as teams build their business cases. That not only presents obvious issues such as vertiports, communications, and air traffic management, but also encompasses acceptance by the public. The question of whether UAM is considered as mass transport available to all, or a high-premium service for the few, has yet to be answered, and has a bearing on social and political acceptance at a local level. It also seems unlikely that governments would commit large investments to UAM infrastructure, leaving a void for the private sector to fill

Nevertheless, following a number of studies underway on a city-by-city basis, the question of infrastructure is now beginning to be tackled at an active level, with investment imminent to lock up properties that are ideal for vertiports in the most promising cities. New York and Vancouver figure prominently in the list of potential lead cities that have long-established and publicly-accepted urban helicopter operations.