UAM Vertidrome Airside Operation: What needs to be considered?

Abstract

The German public transportation system is already facing challenges adjusting appropriately the existent public transportation network to the growing population in rural and urban areas. Lifting the existent offer into the third dimension by introducing Urban Air Mobility (UAM) may be a promising step towards an improvement and has to be considered for the future. But what characteristics does UAM need to offer to represent successfully an extension of the traditional public transportation system? The mutual dependency between the vehicle, air and ground infrastructure components will determine these requirements. The vertidrome (also known as UAM aerodrome or vertiport), acting as an essential UAM junction, merges airside and landside operations and defines the interaction between the operator, the vehicle and the passenger. This research work focuses on the UAM ground infrastructure component vertidrome and addresses the question What needs to be considered in order to establish a vertidrome’s airside operation?. This contribution reports about the preliminary considerations regarding the development of a vertidrome airside performance rating method and the corresponding simulation environment depicting a generic vertidrome airside operation. This paper addresses the process of identifying different stakeholders, assessing current regulations, identifying gaps which need to be filled and proposes exemplarily a vertidrome topology, corresponding mission profiles for approach and departure procedures and essential parts of a vertidrome concept of operation.