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NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design and Analysis of Corridors for UAM Operations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is predicted to provide alternate modes of transportation for cargo and passengers in the urban areas. Integration of UAM operations into the National Airspace System is a challenge especially around large airport. The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) UAM Concept of Operations (ConOps) suggests new airspace structures for UAM operations such as corridors where FAA air traffic control (ATC) will not be expected to provide services. This paper presents a design for corridors in the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) area that attempts to minimize air traffic controller interactions with UAM pilots and operators. The corridor and vertiports are then analyzed with respect to Class B separation criteria and wake advisory criteria. The results show that for the corridors designed for the DFW area and presented in this research, in some cases Class B separation criteria are not available between UAM corridors and legacy traffic due to the geometry of the airport. It shows that wake advisory criteria were not met for some segments in North Flow traffic but were generally met in South Flow. This means that some corridor segments at DFW airport will not be available for a given airport flow and may need new placements, which need further investigation.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS2024

Operational Integration Assessment (OIA) of Midterm UAM Operations: Class C Airspace Tabletop Exercise and Integration Checkpoint

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is conducting research into evolving today’s air traffic management system towards a more automated and operationally flexible airspace to accommodate Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations at scale. UAM operations, enabled by electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, may change the role of aviation in the movement of people and goods and provide practical, cost-effective air transport in metropolitan areas. FAA UAM Concept of Operations v2.0 describes three evolutionary stages of UAM operations: Initial, Midterm, and Mature State operations. Midterm operations are comprised of many complex changes to the national airspace system (NAS). The Operational Integration Assessment (OIA) was created as a capability to address the need to study the progression and identify interdependencies of those changes that may occur during the midterm UAM operations timeframe. The OIA includes a series of tabletop exercises and integration checkpoints planned to explore various use cases from end-to-end, evaluated by NASA’s Air Traffic Management eXploration (ATM-X) project in partnership with the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC) and industry partners. The use cases were exercised in an immersive, integrated live-virtual-constructive (LVC) airspace simulation environment, called the NASA/FAA Laboratory Integrated Test Environment (NFLITE), as part of an effort to learn how UAM operations can scale beyond the as-is NAS and through the transition to higher-tempo and highly automated operations of the future. This document describes the events of the tabletop exercise held from January 24-26, 2023, at the National Airspace Research & Technology Park (NARTP) in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, adjacent to the WJHTC and the subsequent integration checkpoint performed on March 28, 2023,at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia.

UAM↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Simulation Activities for Evaluating UAM Concept of Operations

NASA’s vision for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is to help emerging aviation markets to safely develop an air transportation system that moves people and cargo between places previously not served or underserved by aviation using revolutionary new aircraft types. Urban Air Mobility (UAM), the concept of expanding transportation networks by serving short flights to transport people and goods around metropolitan areas, is part of a larger paradigm shift toward AAM, in which new technologies and business models are enabling transformational applications of aviation. In NASA’s Concept of Operations for UAM, Providers of Services for UAM (PSU) play a key role to enable safe and efficient UAM operations by sharing operational data among UAM operators. PSUs provide a pre-departure strategic conflict management service that establishes operational plans for new flights and coordinates them with all relevant operations in shared airspace. The strategic conflict management aims to minimize the need for tactical separation provision, while considering anticipated traffic demand, vertiport capacity and availability, forecasted weather, and airspace restrictions. NASA is currently preparing a new lab evaluation activity with aviation industry partners, called the X4 simulation, to demonstrate their airspace services and capabilities and test new information exchange requirements for UAM operations. This simulation activity will support NASA’s National Campaign (NC) flight tests which are planned over the next several years to guide the collective community and stakeholders through a series of scenario-based test activities that involve vehicles and airspace management services operating in a live test environment. This presentation will provide an overview of the X4 simulation, including objectives, scenarios, assumptions, system architecture, and test schedule. The X4 simulation will evaluate the interconnectivity and operational intent sharing between PSUs for multiple operators, as well as the performance of strategic conflict management.

Urban Air Mobility, Simulation, Advanced Air Mobil↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Subjective Assessment of Initial and Mid-Term UAM Operations and the Impact on Air Traffic Controllers' Workload

The emergence of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) marks a new era of aviation that will be characterized by a shift in transportation dynamics marked by safe, efficient, and sustainable air travel within urban areas. Although UAM will provide significant advantages, increased air travel demand has the potential to impact air traffic controllers (ATCo) workload. Therefore, industry, government, and academia in the UAM ecosystem are actively working to overcome potential implementation challenges that include airspace integration and air traffic management. As part of this effort, researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are studying the challenges associated with UAM operations’ interactions with air traffic control (ATC). The present research paper presents an analysis of subjective assessments to determine the usability and acceptability of airspace procedures under two different operating conditions – Initial and Mid-Term – and two different levels of UAM traffic. The completion of these investigations will be a steppingstone in supporting the successful implementation of UAM operations into the National Airspace System.

Urban Air Mobility, Air Traffic Control, Workload↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Subjective Assessment of Initial and Mid-Term UAM Operations and the Impact on Air Traffic Controllers' Workload

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The AIRNOISE-UAM Tool and its Application to ATM-X

The noise disruption caused by Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles will be a major factor in public acceptance of UAM. The noise exposure caused by fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters is predicted using Aviation Environment and Design Tool (AEDT) software at the airport. The base noise is calculated by interpolation or extrapolation of Noise-Power-Distance (NPD) database in the AEDT. In this presentation, a new noise prediction tool "AIRNOISE-UAM" is developed with a new NPD database for eVTOL vehciles in collaboration with a RVLT team. The noise exposure results have been verified with those from AEDT. Lastly, we demonstrate two use cases of AIRNOISE-UAM to the ATM-X project. The first use case is to develop noise exposure maps for FAA UAM compliance planning. The sceond use case is to develop noise-aware flight route planning algorithm.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS2019

Simulating Fleet Noise for Notional UAM Vehicles and Operations in New York

This paper presents the results of systems-level simulations using Metrosim that were conducted for notional Urban Air Mobility (UAM)-style vehicles analyzed for two different scenarios for New York (NY). UAM is an aviation industry term for passenger or cargo-carrying air transportation services, which are often automated, operating in an urban/city environment. UAM-style vehicles are expected to use vertical takeoff and landing with fixed wing cruise flight. Metrosim is a metroplex-wide route and airport planning tool that can also be used in standalone mode as a simulation tool. The scenarios described and reported in this paper were used to evaluate a fleet noise prediction capability for this tool. The work was a collaborative effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Intelligent Automation, Inc (IAI), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). One scenario was designed to represent an expanded air-taxi operation from existing helipads around Manhattan to the major New York airports. The other case represented a farther term vision case with commuters using personal air vehicles to hub locations just outside New York, with an air-taxi service running frequent connector trips to a few key locations inside Manhattan. For both scenarios, the trajectories created for the entire fleet were passed to the Aircraft Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) to generate Day-Night Level (DNL) noise contours for inspection. Without data for actual UAM vehicles available, surrogate AEDT empirical Noise-Power-Distance (NPD) tables used a similar sized current day helicopter as the Baseline, and a version of that same data linearly scaled as a first guess at possible UAM noise data. Details are provided for each of the two scenario configurations, and the output noise contours are presented for the Baseline and reduced noise DNL cases.

Glaab, Patricia↗

NASA NTRS2020

In-time System-wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) Concept of Operations and Design Considerations for Urban Air Mobility (UAM)

Emerging operations involving Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), pose a challenge to safety assurance and to accessibility within the National Airspace System (NAS).In particular, the public has a low tolerance for risk in aviation and the current NAS tends to be labor-intensive with limited ability to scale up for UAM. In response to this landscape, NASA is collaborating with industry to define a Concept of Operations (ConOps) for In-time System-Wide Safety Assurance (ISSA) for scalable UAM involving a service-oriented architecture. This architecture focuses safety investments for technological solutions that can overcome safety related barriers for emerging operations. By working with industry, consensus can be reached on desirable system traits that are based on integration and fusion of data and leverage increasingly autonomous and automated systems. These complex systems can identify anomalies, precursors, and trends that together enable more proactive management of operational risks. AAM and UAM elevate the need for risk management in relation to increasing density and heterogeneity of vehicles and operations. Whereas safety in today’s NAS is built on a history of programs and technologies that react to incidents and accidents, AAM presents an opportunity to leverage that experience and its implications and proactively integrate safety into the earliest designs of vehicles and systems. In a perfect world AAM and UAM would not be inherently dangerous but until then ensuring the highest quality of safety requirements is the bridge to mitigating risks.

In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis of the Electrical Grid for UAM

A wide range of challenges must be overcome to conduct Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations at scale with electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. This presentation is on an initial analysis of one potential infrastructure challenge for UAM: available electrical grid capacity. The success of UAM is dependent upon the availability of electricity, which will be increasingly impacted by the proliferation of ground electric vehicles over time. Under the best-case assumption that electricity can be transmitted and distributed as needed within each major interconnection (i.e., electrical grid), it is estimated that the maximum number of UAM aircraft that can charge simultaneously in the continental United States will decrease by 20% from 594,878 today to 475,177 in the year 2050.

electrical grid↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Challenges in Securing UAM Operations

Urban air mobility (UAM) is a concept that proposes to develop short-range, point-to-point transportation systems in metropolitan areas using vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) or short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft to overcome increasing surface congestion. To realize the potential of UAM, an assurance of cybersecurity is critical for public acceptance. Cybersecurity has come to the forefront highlighting the need to protect these networks and systems from cyberattacks. The growth in the development of UAM systems, and the associated data exchange and service interactions will create abundant challenges due to numerous types of cybersecurity attacks. As these threats evolve, the UAM cybersecurity capabilities must adapt to these changes as well.

Urban Air Mobility,↗

NASA NTRS2020

UAM Fleet Manager Gap Analysis

NASA's Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Sub-Project is engaged in research to support the introduction of air taxis into the National Airspace System. Such operations will require arrange of communication, navigation, and surveillance systems. Air vehicles for UAM are under development and will initially have human pilots. Separation from other aircraft, obstacles, and weather may be a pilot responsibility or provided by an operator's ground-based systems. Eventually, air taxis may be flown from the ground or fly autonomously. There will be a need for dispatch services for UAM. This report presents a gap analysis, data and capability requirements, and workstation design concepts for the UAM dispatcher or Fleet Manager (FM) position. This presentation reviews the gap analysis report and outlines user interface design.

Mogford, Richard↗

NASA NTRS2019

Evaluation of Impact Energy Attenuators and Composite Material Designs of a UAM VTOL Concept Vehicle

The development of Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) vehicles for the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) markets presents a need for light weight vehicle structures with effective occupant protection capabilities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been working to fill that need, recently developing a cadre of concept vehicles to help characterize UAM design feasibility. This paper describes a study, using these concept vehicles, to evaluate the use of advanced composite structure and energy attenuating designs in the UAM vehicle design space. A finite element model (FEM) of a single passenger quadrotor concept vehicle was developed in LS-Dyna® and simulated under nominal and off-nominal vertical impact conditions. A variety of energy attenuating design mechanisms were implemented within this model to quantify their effectiveness in improving occupant safety. The use of carbon composites in both the energy attenuation mechanisms and vehicle structure was evaluated. The results of this study found significant reduction in occupant injury risk with the implementation of energy absorbing composite crush tubes and landing gear within the vehicle design. Additionally the use of a carbon fiber as a structural material was found to provide significant weight reduction while maintaining similar occupant loads to that predicted with an aluminum structure. This work provides a preliminary evaluation of design mechanisms and materials that may be used to optimize occupant protection capabilities within the UAM market.

Putnam, Jacob↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Second-Generation UAM Community Noise Assessment Using the FAA Aviation Environmental Design Tool

Vehicles serving the urban air mobility (UAM) market are anticipated to operate in communities close to the public at large. The approved model for assessing environmental impact of air traffic actions in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), does not support analysis of such operations due to a combined lack of a UAM aircraft performance model and aircraft noise data. This paper discusses second-generation developments to assess the acoustic impact of UAM fleet operations on the community using AEDT and demonstrates its use for representative UAM operations. In particular, methods were developed to add broadband self noise into computed noise-power-distance data, and vertiport-centric operations were evaluated for two concept vehicles.

urban air mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Analysis of the Electrical Grid for UAM

A wide range of challenges must be overcome to conduct Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations at scale with electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft as envisioned. This presentation is on an analysis of one potential infrastructure challenge for UAM: available electrical grid power capacity. The success of UAM depends on the availability of electricity, which will be increasingly impacted by the proliferation of ground electric vehicles over time. Under the best-case assumption that electricity can be transmitted and distributed as needed within each interconnection (i.e., electrical grid), it is estimated that the maximum number of UAM aircraft that can charge simultaneously in the continental United States will decrease by 20% from about 595 thousand in the year 2021 to about 475 thousand in the year 2050 due to the projected increase in ground electric vehicles.

electrical grid; urban air mobility; electric vehi↗

NASA NTRS2022

UAM Airspace Research Roadmap - Rev. 1.2

The UAM Airspace research roadmap is being developed as a new System Engineering methodology leveraging Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) capabilities to help organize, integrate, and communicate NASA's UAM airspace research, with the goal of evolving UAM airspace to UML-4. It provides a basis for prioritizing and coordinating research efforts, and for integrating results that build towards NASA’s research goals. Version 1.2 is a development version of the roadmap, shared publicly to serve as a focal point for discussion and feedback leading to a future baselined version (v2.0). This version supersedes earlier publications, and will be superseded itself by later versions.

UAM↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Data Driven UAM Flight Energy Consumption Prediction and Risk Assessment

With the current technological advancements revolutionizing the concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and package delivery, there is also, a concurrent need to quantify the operational safety of these vehicles in terms of their associated risk. Conducting safe flight operations is critical for UAM vehicles which are electrically Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles, to operate in current Air traffic control. In this paper, a data-driven method for UAM vehicle energy consumption prediction and risk quantification with conditional value-at-risk based on energy consumption distribution is presented. Significant factors affecting energy consumption, such as density altitude, aircraft design, airspeed, and collision avoidance algorithms, are considered in the data-driven based energy consumption prediction of different eVTOL

Data-driven↗

NASA NTRS2023

UAM Airspace Research Roadmap - Rev. 2.0

The UAM Airspace research roadmap is being developed as a new System Engineering methodology leveraging Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) capabilities to help organize, integrate, and communicate NASA's UAM airspace research, with the goal of evolving UAM airspace to UML-4. It provides a basis for prioritizing and coordinating research efforts, and for integrating results that build towards NASA’s research goals. Version 2.0 is a baseline version of the roadmap, shared publicly to serve as a focal point for discussion and feedback. This version supersedes earlier publications, and will be superseded itself by later versions.

UAM↗

NASA NTRS2023

ATM-X Urban Air Mobility: Assistive Detect and Avoid for UAM Operations Safety Evaluation Metrics

This document satisfies ATM-X UAM Task UID 989 “Evaluation Report on Tactical Separation Provision Services with Advisory Detect and Avoid Safety Metrics”. The first version of this document was delivered to the UAM team on October 3, 2022, for initial revision and comments.This current version incorporates all the comments received and is being delivered to the UAM subproject for a final revision before is submitted to satisfy the L1 milestone deliverable.

UAM↗