From Urban to Innovative Air Mobility

Abstract

Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) is an emerging term that describes a modern, safe and sustainable air transport system and can be seen as an extension of Urban Air Mobility (UAM). IAM aims to efficiently transport passengers and freight by air and combines different use cases (e.g. urban, regional and international air transport connections) into an intermodal transport network. The concept of IAM is designed to overcome the traditional boundaries of air transport and offer innovative solutions (e.g. air taxis) for mobility in urban and regional areas. In contrast to traditional air transport systems, which are largely focused on large airports and long-haul flights, IAM centres on more flexible and accessible air transport services that are tailored to the specific needs of the regions. Based on the findings from DLR's project HorizonUAM (2020-2023), the project IAM-OSA (Innovative Air Mobility for Optimal Sustainability and Accessibility, 2025-2027) expands the scope by considering new intermodal and regional use cases with the aim of seamlessly integrating IAM into existing transport systems. The complex IAM system will be analysed in the project using simulations in fast time, real time, a real transport replica (in collaboration with the project VERTIFIED Vertiport Research Infrastructure for Innovation Exploration and Demonstration) and scaled flight tests. The focus here is on the integration of IAM into the overall traffic system, operational operation with the construction and evaluation of an air taxi control center and the further development of a system-of-systems (SoS) simulation. In addition, safety issues such as safe autonomy, safe communication and navigation, cyber security and the acoustics of innovative air transport systems are being investigated.