 "Air Taxis by 2026: How aviation will transform India’s urban mobility")
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation sector regulator, has announced the rules for setting up Vertical Port (Vertiport). There is a general expectation that air taxis may start flying by 2026. The start may take place in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi and Mumbai, the two metros that are seeing high congestion on roads. Imagine going from Gurgaon to Greater Noida in 15-20 minutes rather than two hours by road, and saving the agony as well as the precious man-hours. Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai are likely to be the next cities.
In 2020, Dubai passed a new regulation “to help flying taxis and drone deliveries take off” alongside a network of mini-airports within the city. Many cities in the world already operate air taxis. These Vertiports will be designed to allow the air taxis to make vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). There will be some formalities and operational requirements like those on an airport.
DGCA has reportedly held extensive discussions with all stakeholders to formulate rules for Vertiports. Rules and guidelines have been set for infrastructure, air taxi operations, battery charging, parking, landing, and emergency response for Vertiports, among others.
Urban Air Mobility
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is the use of small, highly automated aircraft to carry passengers or cargo at lower altitudes in urban and suburban areas, which have been developed in response to traffic congestion. It usually refers to existing and emerging technologies such as traditional helicopters, vertical-takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL), electrically propelled vertical-takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
These aircraft are characterised by the use of multiple electric-powered rotors or fans for lift and propulsion, along with fly-by-wire systems to control them. Advances in materials, computerised flight controls, batteries, and electric motors improved innovation and designs beginning in the late 2010s have allowed UAM. The aircraft will be operated initially by professionals, and only much later will we reach the stage of becoming personal aircraft like self-owned cars.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsFor a long time, there have been helicopter services from airports to city centres. Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) would include drones, electric aircraft, and automated air traffic management, among other technologies, to perform a wide variety of missions, including cargo and logistics. Tilt-rotors can cover around 300 km.
How to Manage UAM
UAM will be composed of an ecosystem that considers the evolution and safety of the aircraft, the framework for operation, access to airspace, infrastructure development, and community engagement. It will envisage commercial inter-city travel (like air taxis), cargo delivery, public services, and private or recreational vehicles.
The initial UAM ecosystem will use existing helicopter infrastructure such as routes, helipads, and Air Traffic Control (ATC) services. Looking toward the future, the agencies are evolving infrastructure specially designed for UAM. It would mean designating routes along the main city arteries and developing new Vertiports. On March 2, 2022, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued draft interim guidance to support the design and operation of facilities that electric VTOL aircraft will use for initial operations. Many companies are developing the next generation VTOL vehicles.
Passenger acceptance and potential passengers’ value of time are the two key factors for going ahead. There is the need to understand the landscape of relevant questions surrounding the implementation of UAM. The urban airspace would have to look at safety factors, social aspects, and system and aircraft issues.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as Part of UAM
The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have been flying since the 1970s, and the safety record has been continuously improving. Removing pilots dramatically increases payload and reduces personnel costs. Also, there has been a boom in less expensive civil travel and light personal jets. UAM is the next logical step. UAM evolved from the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), a joint initiative of the FAA, NASA, and the industry to develop an air transportation system that moves passengers and cargo with new electric (i.e., green) air vehicles to places previously underserved by traditional aviation. Nearly 150 companies worldwide are in the race with under-testing UAM prototypes. The UAVs had to be made more robust for passenger flights.
Hybrid Propulsion
Electric motors in multi-rotor designs for “lift and cruise” have started maturing. More efficient rotors are using lightweight materials. Hybrid-electric turbo-generators are being combined with rugged turbine engines using conventional or bio-derived jet fuel that powers motors or high-capacity batteries. The battery endurance is increasing, and the same is evolving further by the surface transport industry. The electromechanical actuators would be very important for UAM aircraft. Since the flight will be at low heights, they will experience thermals and the unusual winds caused by buildings. The pinpoint landings dozens of times a day would require fly-by-wire computers to make hundreds of small adjustments every second. The actuators would make these movements while maintaining the highest degrees of precision and reliability.
Flight Safety Issues
Unlike a traditional helicopter, the UAMs will use multiple motors and propellers, electric engines, and lighter materials, which make them cheaper, quieter, and more efficient. The operations will be both urban and regional. Limited airspace and a larger number of operators would cause congestion. It may push the industry to adopt smaller separation standards. The safety record and acceptable risk models for hobby drones are clearly unacceptable. The on-board systems will have to have quadruple safety and high reliability.
Since the UAM vehicles will have more degrees of freedom to freely choose their position, altitude, heading, and speed, this will require safety clearances. That would also require high technological capabilities, such as dynamic geo-fences and advanced sense-and-avoid capabilities, to maintain the required safety levels. Some such features already exist in drone swarms. Collision avoidance algorithms, avoidance maps, and path-planning would be required. A very compact traffic collision avoidance system and an enhanced ground proximity warning system, including avoiding buildings, made up of multiple electronic beams using a small phased array, are under testing.
Flight and Weather
Tall urban buildings create wind gusts and cause significant turbulence in their proximity. This can affect aircraft’s ability to maintain position, altitude, and stability. Even the autopilot may be overtaxed and cause divergences. Precipitation can increase resistance or could affect onboard electronics. Low temperatures can reduce battery life. Icing can affect airframes or propellers and increase drone weight. Visibility and low ceiling could reduce the effectiveness of sense-and-avoid avionics. Close monitoring of weather is thus required.
Traffic Challenges and Control
The UAVs used for recreation, policing, infrastructure inspection, forestry, and agriculture purposes remain in specific geographic regions and require limited traffic management. Accommodating exponential UAM traffic will require solutions for communication, navigation, surveillance, and overall air traffic management. Differences in air vehicle designs, sizes, and performance will make it complex. Higher numbers, greater density, and lower altitudes of operations will need handling.
Rules of air, routes, and scheduling would have to be evolved. Traffic management would mean flight path clearance, time slot scheduling, and, at times, first-come-first-launch approval. The routes will be based on demand and social factors. Separate corridors would have to be designated. It may be interesting to follow the main road as an axis. UAM aerodromes would be nearer to the main roads. Streetlight poles and electricity transmission towers would be a factor. Two-way traffic lanes would need horizontal and vertical separation. Tall building rooftops may be the UAM ports for ease of climb and descent.
Building UAM Infrastructure
The UAM ground infrastructure will have to dovetail into the other urban and regional transportation systems. Maintenance and battery management would have to be factored. Vertiport sites will emerge based on estimated air taxi demand. Take-off and landing pads, communication, navigation, surveillance infrastructure, and seat-booking will have to be evolved and fit into the overall urban plan. Air taxis may require booking, like car aggregators Ola and Uber, including ride-sharing. The initial air taxi service would be on manned aircraft and later shift to unmanned. Cargo movement through UAM will be a good starting point.
Technologies and Certification
LTE and 5G-and-beyond cellular technologies and secure satellite links will be required for communication. Assured accurate GPS and backups will be crucial. Battery and hybrid fuel cell technologies will be important. Lighter yet stronger materials must keep evolving. The UAM certification and regulations have to evolve through global standardisation. Volocopter eVTOL pilots and maintenance technician training is being evolved. There will be demand for pilots, and they would need certification to operate an eVTOL and remote eVTOLs. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and FAA are leading the process. UAM transportation policy and aircraft certification guidelines have to be in place first.
Public Confidence and Social Factors
The public is still sceptical about getting into an unmanned air taxi. Very few feel comfortable flying alone in an automated aircraft, even though accompanied by other passengers. Public acceptance will increase once self-driven cars become common. Since UAM will operate at low flight levels, closer to residential areas, communities will be concerned about security, privacy, liability, and noise, visual, and air pollution.
UAM rotor sound can at times be irritating, both in volume and frequency. It would affect sleep. Quieter air vehicles would need to be designed. Drones equipped with cameras could capture images that impact privacy. People, in general, have positive attitudes towards innovation and new technology but expect high safety assurance. The cost of transportation and ticketing will be an issue. Time-cost-saving analysis would be made with other modes of travel.
Portable Personal Air Mobility System
The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is in the process of granting contracts for construction and flight demonstration of the “Portable Personal Air Mobility System” that can be used by soldiers for short hops of around 10 km. These will be mobile, small, light-weight, and compact. One can assemble them in a short time with minimal training. Once successful, it would be available for civil use, akin to the bicycle of the air.
Global Cities Running Air Taxis
There are many major cities around the world that use air taxis for urban mobility. Mexico City and Tokyo use city air taxis. New York has urban air mobility (UAM) and Uber Copter services. São Paulo, Brazil, has Voom, a subsidiary of Airbus that flew more than 15,000 passengers in 2017.
Blade Air Mobility, Inc. (BLADE) is an aviation company headquartered in New York City. It is an urban air mobility company that provides air transportation for passengers and last-mile critical cargo, primarily using helicopters and amphibious aircraft for passenger routes in the US, Canada, Southern Europe, and India, in addition to being one of the largest air medical transporters of human organs for transplant in the world. In India, BLADE essentially runs helicopter flights between Mumbai, Shirdi, and Pune.
Dubai will soon host the world’s first flying taxi service with Joby Aviation. Joby Aviation is a US venture-backed aviation company developing an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft that it intends to operate as an air taxi service. Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami, and Santa Monica are other cities planning urban air mobility.
IndiGo’s Electric VTOL
The first attempt to launch an air taxi had been made by Inter-Globe Enterprises, the parent company of India’s IndiGo airline. It had signed an agreement with California-based Archer Aviation to acquire their VTOL aircraft called ‘Midnight’. Archer Aviation is an electric air taxi manufacturer. IndiGo has invested $1 billion and signed a deal for 200 Midnight aircraft.
A Bright Future Ahead
Automation and electricity storage technologies and higher flight safety will spur urban unmanned aviation. Rotary or fixed-wing cruise vehicles are already past the prototype stage. The UAM is currently in the “honeymoon” phase. UAM will be safe, sustainable, and convenient. By 2030, 60 per cent of the world’s population will be urban, and this will create UAM demand. Hundreds of start-ups are evolving new automated aircraft. Issues related to regulation, air traffic management, and public perception are being addressed.
A holistic approach to urban air mobility would mean seamlessly integrating a variety of critical components. Most commercial airports are currently located in the suburbs. The vertiports will mostly be located in more densely populated areas. NASA, FAA, including India’s DGCA, are actively involved. The aircraft will be initially owned and operated by professional operators, as with taxis, rather than by private individuals. Big players in UAM include Amazon, Boeing, Airbus, Embraer-X, Uber Elevate, and Singapore UTM, among others. Maximising safety and capacity after understanding technological complexity, noise, and privacy is the essence.
For UAM aircraft to be most efficient, recharging, swapping batteries, and hydrogen refuelling must be done as quickly as possible. If it is safe to travel to space in an automated unmanned craft, so will it be in the case of UAM. Some cities are encouraging the idea of inexpensive, point-to-point air travel as a way of reducing traffic congestion and moving goods. A European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) survey showed that 83 per cent of respondents had a positive attitude towards UAM, while 71 per cent were ready to try UAM services.
An emerging big economy like India would have to get on board early and reap the benefits. India must also try to become a manufacturing hub and support the huge automation software demands. Notwithstanding the Shatabdi and Vande Bharat trains and newly developed expressways, it may be more interesting to take an unmanned air taxi from Faridabad to Karnal. It may also be a better way to travel from Greater Noida to Gurgaon on a Friday evening. And as it becomes possible, the loved ones will not be too far away.
The writer is former Director General, Centre for Air Power Studies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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