Nicknamed the “world’s smallest airport”, Urban Port hopes that the zero-emissions facility will be replicated around the globe to cut both road congestion and air pollution.
The world is buzzing with technological innovations in Drones, flying taxis, eVTOLs, you name it whatever you like. Every country is making headway in this future of flying innovations. It’s a flying wonder, taking flight without any pilot, working on inbuild sensors and GPS. Technological experts have predicted a future in which just like on roads, there will be drone/flying taxi traffic in the skies very soon. It takes us down memory lane with a picture of the popular animation of the 90’s the Jetsons, in which the family zooms around in a flying taxi.
With the flying taxis, soon to take the skies, the next question is where will these taxis, drones, and eVTOLs land? The answer is given by a digital infrastructure developer in the UK by the name of Urban Port. They have opened the world’s first fully operational hub called Air-One for future electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. This hub is backed by the UK government and supported by advanced air mobility developer Supernal.
The hub – starting gun for a new age of transport
The hub is a 1,700 sq m prefabricated vertiport designed for both rapid assembly and disassembly. Nicknamed the “world’s smallest airport”, Urban Port hopes that the zero-emissions facility will be replicated around the globe to cut both road congestion and air pollution. “Existing airports around the world are huge, and carbon hungry, with 1.2km runways,” says Urban Air Port founder and executive chairman Ricky Sandhu. That’s because of the technology and how the aircraft take-off and land. The project’s designers believe that the concept will show how a network of small urban mobility hubs can be rapidly set up in cities of various sizes. “Our goal is to show that the turnaround time can be absolutely minimal so that with a very small footprint, you can get high-capacity infrastructure that can support the vehicles,” Mr. Sadhu adds.
Air-One will also host charging infrastructure for other modes of electric transport, including electric vehicles.
The Forecast
According to Urban-Air Port, the advanced air mobility (AAM) market is set to take off, with a forecast growth of 9 percent annually to reach USD 1tn within the next two decades. Analysis by NASA indicates that the lack of ground infrastructure remains one of the biggest barriers to the industry’s growth.
Sustainability
With the ability to accommodate air taxis and autonomous delivery drones, the center is expected to demonstrate how advanced air mobility can support a zero-carbon future by cutting congestion and air pollution. The hub has been backed by the UK government and supported by advanced air mobility developer Supernal.
Drones have the exciting possibility to help reduce logistics and delivery congestion on our roads in a sustainable, eco-friendly, zero-emission way, cutting emissions by up to 47 percent when compared to light commercial vehicles.
Ricky Sandhu, founder and executive chairman of Urban-Air Port, said, “The opening of Air-One is a momentous moment – the starting gun for a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier and more connected than ever before.”
The ‘vertiports’ are designed to be highly flexible, catering to four different markets: Passenger air taxis, autonomous delivery drones, disaster emergency management, and defense operations and logistics.
They can be operated completely off-grid using on-site hydrogen fuel cells, and zero-emission generation.
Urban-Air Port said it will generate revenue through an ‘infrastructure-as-a-service’ model, enabling customers to decide the level of service they require.
The strategic location
Coventry was chosen for the site due to its location in the center of the UK – with most parts of the country within four hours of travel. Coventry University’s National Transport Design Centre, part of the research Centre for Future Transport and Cities, has contributed to Urban-Air Port’s design. Researchers have worked to ensure Air-One’s design is accessible and easy to navigate, and Coventry University will continue to collaborate with Urban-Air Port to increase public understanding and acceptance of the new technology.
The launch event
The massive launch event was conducted recently with Air-One currently demonstrating aircraft command and control, eVTOL charging, and cargo loading for unmanned drones. Demonstrator flights are currently on. West Midlands Police and drone logistics company Skyfarer are among the first to operate flights from the site, showcasing how Urban-Air Port’s vertiports can provide drone bases for ‘sky protection’ and high-value cargo deliveries in the near future. Flights of large cargo drones are also demonstrated by UK-based drone developer Malloy Aeronautics. The hub is open to the public till the middle of May.
Over at least a month the Air-One mini-airport site in Coventry will host demonstrator flights and outline how to control aircraft. Urban-Air Port added air taxis were yet to receive government approval, but a life-sized model of one being built would be on show on the ground.
Mike Whitaker, the chief commercial officer of Supernal, says, “Air-One serves as a valuable, tangible asset to help build stakeholder confidence and trust in emerging mobility technology and supporting systems. The Coventry demonstration is an important first step forward to reimagining how people across the world will move, connect and live. Developing a scalable system to support advanced air mobility operations requires collaboration from all industries and corners of the world. Supernal’s support of Urban-Air Port reinforces our belief in infusing technology and innovation to enable humanity and society to reach new levels of potential.”
The Coventry demonstrations may be extended beyond the month and people can register to attend via the company’s website.
“In a couple of years, the community from here can be flying to places like London within 20 minutes, saving so much time,” Mr. Sandhu says “Our job is to pave the way.”
“Air taxis will be coming very, very soon, in two years or so the leading companies will be launching theirs but cargo drones… these are already flying, doing lots of deliveries in and around the country but also around the world… They need a coordinated piece of infrastructure and that’s where we come in. By contract, new vehicles can take off vertically and land extremely accurately. There’s going to be a whole new type of infrastructure needed to support those.” He further adds.
A series of public engagement events at Air-One have been planned, to bring future air mobility to life for the public and form part of Coventry’s City of Culture celebrations.
Expansion plan
Urban-Air Port plans to deploy 200 more hubs around the world over the next five years. Vertiports will be launched in the UK in the West Midlands and London, and internationally in the US, Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Southeast Asia. As announced in October 2021, Urban-Air Port and Munich Airport’s airport operator will also cooperate on the launch of an Air-One site.
Robert Courts, UK minister for aviation, said, “British innovation has a rich history of transforming global transportation, from the creation of the railroads in the 1800s to the growth of great British brands such as Jaguar, Triumph, and Rover in the 1950s. The opening of Air-One, backed by government funding, will revolutionize the way people and goods travel across the nation. This step forward puts Britain at the vanguard of clean transport, bringing investment and high-skilled, green job opportunities to the nation while leveling up opportunity in the Midlands.”
“We’re aiming to see 200 Urban Air Ports deployed within the next five years, globally,” Mr. Sadhu added. “But we think that’s conservative because big cities will need significantly more.”
Munich Airport is working on close cooperation with Urban Air Port to ensure that the vertiport project becomes a blueprint for future vertiport deployments in multiple environments and settings.
The Challenges
There are several challenges standing in the way of flying taxis and skyports. Some of them are public acceptance, high-volume manufacturing, digital, power, and physical infrastructure investment, and the development of a highly-automated air traffic management system. However, the main challenge is regulatory hurdles and air traffic control systems.
Regarding regulatory hurdles, the biggest barrier is that flying taxis have yet to be given authorization to fly commercially by the relevant authorities, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US, or the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Both of these are, however, continuing to study the issue – the safety of such vehicles, and how authorization can be formulated and subsequently monitored. At the CAA this work is being done by a specific innovation team.
Apart from this, health and safety issues cannot be neglected. Imagine if a flying taxi fell in an uncontrolled way the amount of damage it can cause to anyone in the vicinity is simply unimaginable. Ricky Sadhu says his main concern is that investment in skyports and other infrastructure may lack investment in the eVTOL vehicles themselves.
“I’m less concerned about regulation. What we’re seeing is evolving quickly,” says Mr. Sandhu .
He further adds that despite the challenges, there is already enormous demand and interest in skyports from cities across the US, Europe, and Asia.
Currently Urban-Air Port is in the process of developing global networks of specialist ground, air, and digital infrastructure to support urban logistics worldwide.
Market Competition
Rising companies in the drones and UAV market include Dronamics, Natilus, Elroy Air, and Reliable Robotics.
