Urban and Regional Air Mobility Research

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Traffic and Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 12578

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Bauhaus Luftfahrt e. V., 82024 Taufkirchen, Germany
Interests: urban and regional air mobility; future of aviation; transportation; multimodality; economics

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Co-Guest Editor
Assitant Professor and Director of Vehicle Systems, Dynamics, and Design Laboratory, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
Interests: aircraft design; flight mechanics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

This Special Issue is devoted to research within the field of urban and regional air mobility and provides a publication framework for applied studies combining various disciplines to investigate how this future mode of transport will develop as a new market within air transportation. As urban and regional air mobility should be seen as a new transport system, this Special Issue calls for papers focussing on critical elements such as vehicles, vertiports, their operations, airspace, and ground infrastructure integration; in addition, we must consider specific city integration and the assessment of long-term economic, ecological, and social impacts. Vehicle-related aspects can cover topics of design, performance, and noise optimisation issues. As vertiports or usable airfields are the second critical element for urban and regional air mobility besides the vehicle, papers can focus on aspects such as vertiport location, their designs and operations, the integration to ground modes, and economics and business model options. The third critical element is the safe integration of these vehicles into existing airspace in cases of airport integration aspects and the optimisation of vehicle fleets and their assignments. The final critical elements for the successful integration of this new mode of transport are passenger adoption, public acceptance, and synergetic city integration. Therefore, submitted papers should be interdisciplinary and include aspects from aeronautical engineering, operations research, economics, and social sciences. While the focus should be on the application of established methods, particular enhancements of existing methodologies or new methods tailored to enable the understanding the impact of urban air mobility for passengers, logistics, and medical support could be addressed in papers in this Special Issue. We invite submissions exploring cutting-edge research and recent advances in our understanding of urban air mobility. Both theoretical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as comprehensive reviews and survey papers.

Dr. Kay Plötner
Dr. Imon Chakraborty
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • transport system performance
  • vertiports
  • public acceptance
  • passenger adoption
  • airspace integration
  • city integration
  • eVTOL
  • certification
  • modelling and simulation

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3930 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Battery Performance on Urban Air Mobility Operations
by Xiaotao Qiao, Guotao Chen, Weichao Lin and Jun Zhou
Aerospace 2023, 10(7), 631; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10070631 - 13 Jul 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3378
Abstract
Urban air mobility (UAM) is a promising transportation concept that can effectively address city traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Power batteries are used extensively in UAM vehicles, and their technical characteristics (charge rate and specific energy) are coupled with other sizing parameters to [...] Read more.
Urban air mobility (UAM) is a promising transportation concept that can effectively address city traffic congestion and environmental pollution. Power batteries are used extensively in UAM vehicles, and their technical characteristics (charge rate and specific energy) are coupled with other sizing parameters to significantly impact the direct operating cost (DOC). This study develops a DOC model based on a standard flight profile and a detailed battery model to determine the impact of battery performance on UAM operations. The results reveal that for a given operating model and current battery technology, there is a narrower charge rate choice for different DOCs; a charging rate of at least 2–2.5 C is required for rational design. Advancements in specific energy are expected to reduce the DOC by 20–25% by 2035. This model reflects the impacts of battery performance on UAM operations, which is conducive to further developments in the UAM market. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Regional Air Mobility Research)
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16 pages, 8625 KiB  
Article
A Framework to Elaborate on the Requirements for Electrified Commuter and Regional Aircraft
by Fabian Helmchen, Sophie F. Armanini and Andreas Hupfer
Aerospace 2023, 10(4), 326; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10040326 - 24 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1650
Abstract
With increasing capabilities of electric motors and energy storage, aircraft designs for electrified commuter and regional aircraft become more relevant than ever. Design concepts are often derived and optimised according to existing, conventional reference aircraft; however, their characteristics differ and the underlying trade-offs [...] Read more.
With increasing capabilities of electric motors and energy storage, aircraft designs for electrified commuter and regional aircraft become more relevant than ever. Design concepts are often derived and optimised according to existing, conventional reference aircraft; however, their characteristics differ and the underlying trade-offs are divergent. This work aims to derive and describe major external requirements for the design of proposed commuter and regional aircraft system. Therefore, a travel time benefit analysis was conducted that considered the European NUTS-3 regions, as well as the concentration of population. Total travel times for individual road, high-speed rail, commuter air services, and traditional airline services were compared. Travel time calculations were based mostly on third-party road and railway APIs, whereas airline services were based on air traffic management data. The data show a concentration of potential commuter connections on distances between 200 and 950 km. The majority of these connections are currently operated on airline flights, which involve extraordinarily long first/last mile transportation. The majority of regions are already well covered with airfields offering sufficient runway length; however, air traffic capacities and apron space could become major bottlenecks when considering a possible shift from airline to decentral commuter air services. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Regional Air Mobility Research)
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Review

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24 pages, 4361 KiB  
Review
Air Traffic Management as a Vital Part of Urban Air Mobility—A Review of DLR’s Research Work from 1995 to 2022
by Bianca I. Schuchardt, Dagi Geister, Thomas Lüken, Franz Knabe, Isabel C. Metz, Niklas Peinecke and Karolin Schweiger
Aerospace 2023, 10(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10010081 - 14 Jan 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5900
Abstract
Urban air mobility is a rapidly growing field of research. While drones or unmanned aerial vehicles have been operated mainly in the private and military sector in the past, an increasing range of opportunities is opening up for commercial applications. A new multitude [...] Read more.
Urban air mobility is a rapidly growing field of research. While drones or unmanned aerial vehicles have been operated mainly in the private and military sector in the past, an increasing range of opportunities is opening up for commercial applications. A new multitude of passenger-carrying drone or air taxi concepts promises to fulfill the dream of flying above congested urban areas. While early research has been focusing on vehicle development, solutions for urban air traffic management are lagging behind. This paper collects and reviews the main findings of past urban-air-mobility-related research projects at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to serve as a basis for ongoing research from an air traffic management perspective. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban and Regional Air Mobility Research)
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