Airbus has announced that it is heading up a large group of companies, universities, research institutions, municipalities and other organisations that have come together to launch an initiative that aims to contribute to the development of advanced air mobility in Germany.
According to Airbus, the Air Mobility Initiative (AMI) is setting up a series of research projects that should help to make urban air mobility within and between cities a reality. These projects are focusing on three main areas: electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft; unmanned traffic management (UTM) services; and airport and city integration, including vertiports.
Airbus is leading the aircraft-related activities, working in conjunction with Diehl Aerospace, the University of Stuttgart and other partners.
The UTM effort will deal with the safe and efficient flight of vehicles on their routes in and outside cities. Airbus’s partners for this area of research include Droniq, f.u.n.k.e. Avionics, SkyFive, BrigkAir, DFS, Telekom, and universities from Munich and Hamburg.
The third research strand will be focusing on take-off and landing sites for the aircraft, and their integration into airports and cities. Munich Airport, Deutsche Bahn, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Airport Nürnberg, and the universities of Ingolstadt and Munich are undertaking this work.
Airbus says that the AMI partners will first look to address the technological, infrastructural, legal and social prerequisites for the future implementation of advanced air transport. The knowledge gained will then be carried through to a demonstration project under real conditions with eVTOLs. The test flights for the demonstration project will be carried out in the region around Ingolstadt.
Work on the individual research projects began in January this year. The cost of the AMI’s activities is expected to reach €86 million over a three-year period. Alongside industry funding for the initiative, the German federal government is providing €24 million and the state of Bavaria is contributing €17 million.
Markus May, head of operations for urban air mobility at Airbus, notes: “In many parts of the world, eVTOLs will offer a whole new mobility service in the near future. Airbus and the AMI partners are aware that the introduction of such a system requires the cooperation of many players with different competences. Our goal is to build a transport service that benefits society, and this is what we are setting up here in Bavaria.”
