AAM Questions and Answers – What is Advanced Air Mobility?

There are more solutions than obstacles, Nicolas Zart

If words like advanced air mobility, urban air mobility, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and vertiports with their respective acronyms, AAM and UAM, and eVTOL confuse you, then you’ve come to the right place.

With twenty years of experience as a consultant and journalist in the electric mobility industries, I’ve been privileged with a front-view seat of this once-in-a-lifetime mobility revolution we call the electric drive. But if electric vehicles are becoming more common on the road, electric aircraft will surprise you even more.

Would you believe they fly today? Would you believe I’ve seen several already fly and that we are working on their infrastructure?

We created Electric Air Mobility, LLC as a consulting group bringing together well-established aviation companies with decades of experience with a few highly innovative startups to bring airports, heliports, and municipalities everything needed to design a vertiport ecosystem.

This series of articles explains what AAM is and what you should know. Today, we look at what AAM is. Next, we’ll look into the various aircraft types designed for AAM. And most importantly after that, we’ll look at where they will operate, what is called vertiports. We will break down vertiports according to their four pillars, energy, vertipad/eSTOL port, air traffic management, and finally terminals. But before we do this, we’ll define the three types of vertiports currently worked on.

With all eyes on the promise of Electric Air Mobility, advanced air mobility’s (AAM) history is rich and fascinating. The one question we haven’t answered yet is, what advanced air mobility?

Where Does AAM Come From?

AAM is a term introduced by NASA in 2017 when the agency felt a need for an all-encompassing term for new forms of aerial transportation not yet in use.

Until 2017, we used urban air mobility (UAM) and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to represent the potential of this future quieter, no-emission, efficient air travel. Soon enough, UAM was outgrown with the consideration of regional air mobility, linking cities and longer flights. This led to the use of the AAM term.

Today, we still use the term Electric Air Mobility as a way to refer to any aircraft that predominantly uses electricity as its main mode of propulsion. This included pure electric aircraft, hybrid, and hydrogen drivetrains since they all make use of electric motors coupled to propellers. Since the latter is beyond the scope of what Electric Air Mobility is, we’re sticking to electric air mobility in this series. In the meantime, consider that AAM has a wide ecosystem that includes UAM, regional air mobility, eVTOL that only use electricity as well as those that use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and hydrogen, as well as electric short take-off and landing (eSTOL) and electric conventional take-off and landing (eCTOL) aircraft, which we’ll cover soon.

The History of AAM: From UAM to Regional Air Mobility

AAM promises quieter, more efficient, and emission-free air travel using electricity for eVTOL, eSTOL, and eCTOL aircraft. As the potential of UAM gained traction and technology matured enough to consider regional air mobility, AAM continues to include more technologies such as AI, nuclear energy, and much more. Back in 2014, we considered UAM to link building tops to one another within the confines of a city. Today, the vision has matured to include longer trips and those not possible with conventional aircraft in use today.

Within the AAM ecosystem, UAM plays a crucial role in urban environments, offering efficient intra-city transportation and merging drone activities with eVTOL passenger flights at low levels of up to 4,000 feet. eVTOL aircraft, with their vertical take-off and landing capabilities, are key enablers of UAM, providing seamless point-to-point travel and promising to land more quietly where helicopters can’t and at a fraction of the price. AAM also considers regional air mobility, extending the benefits of electric aircraft to inter-city travel with eSTOLs and eCTOLs able to link cities such as Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York to Washington D.C., Paris to London, Tokyo to Osaka, etc.

Sustainable Aviation: Electric, Hybrid, and Hydrogen

AAM’s goal of sustainability means the electric aircraft will reduce emissions using electricity, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and hydrogen when possible making them ideal for urban settings. The ecosystem where these electric and hybrid aircraft will take off and land is called a vertiport. This will be the topic of our next article. Vertiports will include electricity, hydrogen, and SAF for its sustainable AAM operations.

These dedicated AAM infrastructures will act as hubs for aircraft landing, charging, and passenger services. They will operate as a point-to-point mobility platform and in the case of bigger vertiports also referred to as vertihubs, as a hub-and-spoke model of transportation. Vertiports come in three main types: dedicated vertiports, hybrid vertiports that integrate with existing infrastructure, and pop-up vertiports for temporary or mobile deployments.

Conclusion: AAM’s Bright Future

Advanced Air Mobility is an exciting and rapidly evolving field, building upon the foundations of electric mobility and sustainable aviation. With a rich history that dates back to the early 1950s, today’s AAM revolutionizes air transportation, offering efficient, sustainable, and accessible travel options. Stay tuned as we continue to explore this fascinating world, delving into aircraft designs and the critical infrastructure of vertiports.