Urban air mobility

[4] These aircraft are characterized by the use of multiple electric-powered rotors or fans for lift and propulsion, along with fly-by-wire systems to control them.

However, advances in materials, computerized flight controls, batteries and electric motors improved innovation and designs beginning in the late 2010s.

[10] Three years later, Henry Ford began prototyping “plane cars” as single-seat aircraft, but halted development after a fatal crash in early tests.

Initially funded by the Canadian government, the project was dropped due to costs until the U.S. Army and Air Force took over the development of the Avrocar in 1958.

[20] Some cities have encouraged the idea of inexpensive, point-to-point air travel as a way of reducing traffic congestion and moving goods.

[21][22] These technologies included distributed propulsion (the use of multiple rotors or fans), lithium ion batteries, inexpensive accelerometers, miniaturized navigation systems and carbon-fiber construction.

[21][23] On October 5, 2011, Marcus Leng, Founder of Opener, piloted the first manned flight of a fixed-wing all electric VTOL aircraft.

In 2014, The Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology (LEAPTech) project was launched as a collaboration of NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center along with Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero) and Joby Aviation.

[25][26] Lockheed Martin debuted their optionally-piloted helicopter, the S-76B Sikorsky Autonomous Research Aircraft (SARA) in 2019, in downtown Los Angeles.

[31] In Ingolstadt, Germany the Urban Air Mobility project began in June 2018, involving Audi, Airbus, the Carisma Research Center, the Fraunhofer Application Center for Mobility, the THI University of Applied Sciences (THI in the artificial intelligence research network) and other partners.

These include projects such as the CityAirbus demonstrator, the Lilium Jet or the Volocopter, the EHang 216 and the experimental Boeing Passenger Air Vehicle.

[37][38] In the concept phase, urban air mobility aircraft, having VTOL capabilities, are deployed to take off and land vertically in a relatively small area to avoid the need of a runway.

[39] The majority of designs are electric and use multiple rotors to minimize noise (due to rotational speed) while providing high system redundancy.

The first type uses only rotors with vertical axis, while the second additionally have propulsion and lift systems for horizontal flight (e.g. pressure propeller and wing).

The heavy mechanical linkages needed to distribute power limit the number and configuration of rotors on an aircraft.

Emerging eVTOL vehicles are limited by the relatively low energy density to weight ratio in current battery technology, as well as the lack of infrastructure required for recharging stations.

Honeywell, Pipistrel, Vertical Aerospace, Lilium and other companies are collaborating to create new flight controls for a variety of eVTOL aircraft.

[51][52] Fly-by-wire systems translate a pilot's inputs into commands sent to an aircraft's motors, propeller governors, ailerons, elevators and other moving surfaces.

[54][52] Advanced autonomous eVTOL fleets require management software to scale to profitable levels.

[51][57][58] Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are necessary to develop autonomous craft, but pose a complication to certification because they are non-deterministic, i.e. they may behave differently given the same input in the same scenario.

The architecture can also incorporate simplified vehicle operations, which replaces traditional pilot displays with imagery that is similar to a car GPS system or smartphone app.

Vertiports or vertibases can feature one or more final approach and takeoff (FATO) and touch-down and lift-off (TLOF) areas, as well as several VTOL stands and other aircraft and passenger facilities.

Joby has partnered with REEF Technology and Neighborhood Property Group (NPG) to use the rooftops of parking structures as take-off and landing areas.

[66] UTM provides airspace integrations necessary for ensuring safe operation through services such as design of the actual airspace, delineations of air corridors, dynamic geofencing to maintain flight paths, weather avoidance, and route planning without continuous human monitoring.

[67] Governments around the world have begun debating changes to their airspace rules to accommodate high numbers of autonomous or semi-autonomous aircraft operating at low altitudes.

[77] All VTOL and eVTOL aircraft that carry persons or property for hire must be flown by an appropriately certificated operator.

[81] Applications include commute, law enforcement, air medical, fire, private security, and military.

[82] Public acceptance of UAM relies on a variety of factors, including but not limited to safety, energy consumption, noise, security, and social equity.

The type of and volume of the noise caused by aircraft and rotorcraft are two leading factors regarding the public perception of eVTOL craft in UAM applications.

[87] In December 2016, the Vertical Lift Research Centers of Excellence (VLRCOE) announced its new academic teams for its program.