Urban Air Port Air-One has been selected as a winner of the UK government’s Future Flight Challenge to develop aviation infrastructure and systems that enable the next generation of electric and autonomous air vehicles.
Air-One is a world-first fully-operational hub for future electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft – such as cargo drones and air taxis – to be launched next to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry later this year.
The project will bring industry, government and the public together to demonstrate how sustainable urban air mobility can reduce congestion, cut air pollution and decarbonise transport while providing passenger journeys and deliveries.
The Urban Air Mobility Division of Hyundai Motor Group has chosen Urban Air Port as its priority infrastructure partner and is supporting the development of Air-One as part of its plan to commercialise its own eVTOL aircraft by 2028.
According to Coventry City Council, Urban Air Port chose Coventry for the first Air-One site due to its location in the middle of the UK and owing to its history as a manufacturing hub for the automobile and aerospace industries.
Air-One will be unveiled during Coventry’s UK city of culture celebrations in 2021 and continue to form part of the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Gary Cutts, UK Research and Innovation’s Future Flight Challenge director, said: “Urban Air Port has the potential to revolutionise cities across the world, making them more connected, cleaner and accelerating our green economic recovery.
“This project epitomises the purpose of the Future Flight Challenge fund – it is innovation at its finest – and will help to position the UK at the vanguard of electric urban air mobility.”
The physical footprint of an Urban Air Port is said to be 60% smaller than a conventional heliport – the most comparable existing infrastructure.
The sites can reportedly be installed in days, emit net zero carbon emissions and can be operated off-grid, meaning they do not always have to rely on a suitable grid connection.
The sites are designed to support any eVTOL aircraft and can be used as a sustainable transport hub for EVs, buses or scooters.
The design enables Urban Air Ports to be moved to alternative locations, as the air-mobility sector develops, making the sites suitable for disaster emergency management.
Urban Air Ports can rapidly deploy drones and other eVTOL to collect and transport emergency supplies, equipment and people where needed.
The company said it plans to develop more than 200 sites in the next five years to meet global demand, with cities across the UK, including Birmingham, Luton and Cambridge, said to have already expressed an interest in installing an Urban Air Port.
However, with research partners at Coventry University, Urban Air Port said it first aims to further public understanding and acceptance of the technology.
It plans to do this by using the Air-One site in Coventry to showcase live demonstrations of remote aircraft command and control, charging / refuelling and cargo and passenger loading for manned and unmanned eVTOL aircraft operating in three markets: passenger air taxi services, autonomous logistics and disaster emergency management.
Malloy Aeronautics, a leading UK-based drone developer, logistics and engineering company, is Urban Air Port’s UK drone aircraft partner. The company’s large cargo drones will be demonstrated at the Air-One site.
Urban Air Port has been awarded a £1.2m grant from UK Research and Innovation’s Future Flight Challenge. The programme is funded by £125m from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and is expected to be matched by up to £175m from industry.
Set to take place on 02-03 June 2021 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, CiTTi Live will provide an exciting platform to see the latest and next-generation transport and traffic technologies designed to help move people, goods and materials into and around a city, safely, efficiently and cleanly.
Click here to learn more about this exciting, new event, which will showcase the ways and means we interact with a city today and how we need to tomorrow.
