By Alex Scerri | November 11, 2022
Estimated studying time 8 minutes, 43 seconds.
With the inauguration of Skyports’ vertiport terminal at Pontoise-Cormeilles-en-Vexin on Nov. 10, Paris is continuous its regular progress towards the city air mobility (UAM) showcase flights deliberate for the Olympic and Paralympic Video games in 2024.
This was the third occasion this yr, following the noise measurement campaign in March and the UTM integration tests in September.
In his feedback previous to the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Duncan Walker, founder and CEO of Skyports, stated discussions round launching UAM has been ongoing for 5 years and plenty of have been skeptical. Nevertheless, in a European first, this inauguration brings the trade one step nearer to public business operations.
Walker lauded Groupe ADP for its funding and dedication to the venture, and thanked his staff and all different companions.
Whereas the seen demonstration is vital, there may be numerous underlying know-how wanted to allow a protected, safe, and seamless passenger expertise. The occasion was the primary time that Skyports built-in these techniques with these of an operator — on this case, Volocopter’s VoloIQ.
Moreover the passenger expertise, the upcoming check program will trial flight procedures, corresponding to aborted take-offs, baulked landings, and different contingencies.
Walker insisted that constructing the bodily terminal buildings and flying precise plane was one of the simplest ways to comprehensively check operational situations earlier than business launch.
Dirk Hoke, Volocopter’s CEO, stated that many stakeholders are projecting that UAM will launch round 2030. Nevertheless, Volocopter is aiming for summer time 2024 for the Paris flights — simply 18 months away — making this close-knit collaboration between the stakeholders important.
Damien Cazé, director common of the DGAC (Path Générale de l’Aviation Civile), France’s aviation regulatory authority, made notice of the work that has been completed in only one yr because the Pontoise sandbox was launched.
He stated the authority’s remit can be to guard most people — not simply the suppliers and customers of the service. Decrease noise ranges and clear vitality sources utilized by UAM plane are vital in reaching these pledged environmental targets, he stated.
Coincidentally, Groupe ADP CEO Augustin de Romanet’s feedback had been partially drowned out by a Robinson R44 touchdown simply outdoors the hangar. He humorously stated that the helicopter’s loud interruption is among the functions behind the sandbox.
After the inauguration, Benoit Jimenez, representing the management of Area Île-de-France, informed Vertical that the regional council strongly helps the venture. The council believes that UAM can be an invigorating catalyst to additional join enterprise and leisure nodes throughout the Parisian agglomeration and the remainder of the area.
Vertiport terminal design
Alex McCord, vertiport growth lead at Skyports, stated that the vertiport terminal on show will be thought-about a working, residing prototype that can be used to check all of the end-to-end processes.
One of many objectives is to have a easy passenger circulation by minimizing contact factors. That is additionally a time to discreetly weigh the passengers and their baggage — important data for flight planning, and cargo and stability calculations.
McCord stated that the group is cognizant that totally different jurisdictions could have numerous necessities. As such, the vertiport design is modular to permit for safety checks, passport management, and so on., for attainable cross border flights.
Entry management will be achieved utilizing QR codes, that are available and cheap to make use of. There may be additionally the potential of utilizing RFID know-how that might additional velocity the method.
McCord additionally famous that the vertiport is designed with accessibility in thoughts in terms of passengers with lowered mobility. Skyports needs to make sure that the service is out there to everybody from the vertiport aspect, with the one limiting issue being the potential of the plane.
The vertiport goals to be plane agnostic. For instance, Volocopter, which took half within the occasion with a crewed flight of its 2X prototype piloted by Paul Stone, in addition to the VoloCity mock-up, will want a battery storage functionality to facilitate its battery swap idea. Different plane might have excessive energy, direct charging capabilities.
When it comes to whether or not flight testing would come with the obstacle-free quantity idea, as described by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), McCord stated that wherever attainable, the group will attempt utilizing slope values, as in helicopter ultimate method and take-offs (FATO) obstacle-free surfaces, to supply extra flexibility. However the obstacle-free quantity would open the chances of shut in-urban functions, supplied the plane efficiency supported it.
Paris 2024 vertiport places
Moreover the beforehand revealed places of Le Bourget Airport, Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris metropolis middle’s present heliport), and Saint-Cyr (close to Versailles Palace), a brand new metropolis vertiport can be constructed adjoining to the Austerlitz prepare station on the southeast fringe of the town middle.
Renderings proven on the occasion point out that this can be a floating vertiport on the left financial institution of the Seine River. Though this seems to be inside the P23 prohibited space overlying Paris as much as 6,500 toes (1,980 meters), the realm is related by an current visible flight guidelines (VFR) helicopter route that providers an area hospital.
Tenders for the development of this and different vertiport infrastructure are anticipated to be issued within the first quarter of 2023.
Volocopter VoloIQ and operations middle
Paalo Dewitz, senior product proprietor of the VoloIQ e-commerce platform and Volocopter apps, demonstrated the reserving app, which makes use of facial recognition know-how to facilitate check-ins on the airport.
The consumer would add a picture of themselves previous to the flight, which is then verified with a facial scan on the time of check-in. It’s nonetheless to be decided if this can be an on-demand or a schedule system, with the corporate hinting that it could possibly be a mixture of each.
Florian Müller, ecosystem and enterprise supervisor of digital platform at Volocopter, stated the operations middle gathers information from a wide range of sources, corresponding to crew scheduling, battery scheduling to help the battery swap idea, climate, chook hazards, and different flight data that may be graphically overlayed on a map.
An fascinating characteristic was the illustration of touchdown places to help continued protected flight and touchdown (CSFL), in relation to VTOL-capable plane licensed in EASA’s class enhanced specification.
The system constantly displays the state of the cost and well being of the battery, in addition to the technical standing of the plane, to make sure that the vacation spot or one of many alternate places will be reached at any level within the flight.
