Analysis of Connectivity and Mobility Changes for Mainliner Air Traffic on a Global Scale

When it comes to international mobility, air connections are crucial for transporting passengers over long distances in the fastest possible way. This paper provides an analysis with focus on the investigation of connectivity and mobility changes in relation to mainliner air traffic considering the 200 cities with the largest GDP per capita on global scale. Following the results of previous studies that have shown a linkage between air connectivity and GDP development, this analysis examines flight schedule data from 2000 and 2019. From these findings, non-, one- and two-stop connections originating from the airports located in the surrounding area of the 200 cities considered were analyzed. Connectivity between the 200 cities with largest GDP per capita on global scale has increased by about 20% considering non-stop and about 6% considering one-stop connections. Growth of the connections of the cities under consideration mainly affected Europe as well as North America with East Asia. Geographical location and the range of aircraft types play a role in the possibility of direct connections. European cities are well connected, and only the frequency of connections has increased noticeably between 2000 and 2019. The use of small air transport could further increase connectivity. Based on the East Asian growth figures of the past years, a trend for the future can be derived, according to which increasing demand on routes to Europe and North America will increase the need for long-haul aircraft to serve demand through direct flight

Urban Air Mobility Use Cases and Technology Scenarios for the HorizonUAM Project

Increasing urbanization and a growing need for mobility are pushing the transport infrastructure in many cities to its limits. Many different mobility solutions are being investigated to solve this problem. In addition to ground-based transportation, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is discussed as a possible solution to create a new type of urban transport mode, which could fulfill different transport needs in several application fields. The cross-institutional and interdisciplinary research project "HorizonUAM - Urban Air Mobility Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)" brings together a wide variety of DLR departments to research on the vision of Urban Air Mobility. In order to coordinate the different research focuses of the project partners, it is necessary to create a common basis for the upcoming work. Therefore, five different use cases were defined. All use cases are selected in order to cover a broad spectrum of challenges for vehicles, safety, air traffic management, infrastructure and operations. In addition, different types of ground-based infrastructure (vertidromes) and their characteristic properties as well as two different concepts of operation (ConOps) for an on-demand and a scheduled UAM service are considered. For each use case and based on the ConOps, application-specific mission profiles, which form the basis for the design of the vehicles, are outlined. As the future of UAM also strongly depends on technological advances, a short-term (2025+) and a long-term (2050+) scenario capture the development of the most important fields of technology for UAM until 2050. Based on the defined use cases, missions and technology scenarios, various aspects regarding to technical feasibility, efficiency, sustainability, market development potential and social acceptance will be investigated in the course of the project

A Collaborative Systems of Systems Simulation of Urban Air Mobility: Architecture Process and Demonstration of Capabilities

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) presents a complex challenge in aviation due to the high degree of innovation required across multiple domains to realize it. From the use of advanced aircraft powered by new technologies, the management of the urban air space to enable high density operations, to the operation of specialized vertidromes serving as a start and end point of the vehicles, the UAM paradigm necessitates a significant departure from aviation as we know it today. In order to understand and assess the many facets of this new paradigm, a Collaborative Agent-Based Simulation is developed to holistically evaluate the system through the modelling of the stakeholders. In this regard, models of vertidrome air-side operations, urban air space management, passenger demand estimation and mode choice, vehicle operator cost and revenues, vehicle maintenance, vehicle allocation, fleet management based on vehicle design performance and mission planning are brought together into a single Collaborative System of Systems Agent-Based Simulation of Urban Air Mobility. Through collaboration, higher fidelity models of each domain can be brought together into a single environment which can then be exploited by all partners, achieving comprehensiveness and fidelity levels not achievable by a single partner. Furthermore, the integration enables the capture of cross-domain effects with ease and allows the domain-specific studies to be evaluated at a holistic level. Agent-Based Simulations were chosen for this collaborative effort as it presents a suitable platform for the modelling of the stakeholders and interactions in accordance with the envisioned concept of operations. This work presents the capabilities of the developed Collaborative System of Systems Agent-based Simulation, the development process and finally a visual demonstration. The objectives of this presentation are: • Detail the development process of the Collaborative System of Systems Agent-Based Simulation • Demonstrate a holistic simulation of UAM built through collaboration of multiple tools/modules such as vertiport and trajectorie

Global UAM Demand: Concept of a model-based Forecasting Approach

Increasing urbanization leads to a growing need for new transportation concepts for urban environments. Therefore, many different mobility solutions have been proposed and investigated in recent years. Due to the increasing advances in new vehicle concepts and technologies, especially in the field of battery technologies, the integration of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) into existing urban transport systems as a supplementary component is becoming more and more conceivable. In general, the term UAM is associated with an air transport system based on a high-density vertidrome network and air taxis services within an urban environment. While initial eVTOL manufacturers plan to have UAM vehicle certification by 2023 and start first operations in 2024, the global market potential of UAM is still unclear. A preliminary estimation of potential UAM demand, the associated number of flight movements and the required number of vehicles would be helpful for manufacturers to plan ahead upcoming production at an early stage. However, forecasting the global UAM demand involves a number of challenges. In order to take into account the different characteristics (e.g. built-up area, number of inhabitants, mobility patterns) of cities worldwide, a forecasting method is needed that is as simple and transferable as possible for all cities without having to create individual, city-specific transport models. Currently, there are only few preliminary estimations for the global UAM market development. In addition to initial estimates from consulting companies, Mayakonda et al, Anand et al, and Straubinger et al in particular have published initial estimates for global UAM demand. All three publications focus on an approach where cities are grouped into clusters and analyses are conducted for one representative city for each cluster. As part of the HorizonUAM project, a different forecasting method is proposed and being set up to provide first estimates of the potential global UAM demand. The concept relies on a model-based approach that uses a limited number of parameters of each city to estimate total transport demand for each city. Based on this, the probability that travelers will choose the air taxi for their individual trips within a city is determined, considering travel distances and characteristics of the air taxi and an alternative means of transport. By summing up all city-specific results, an estimate of global UAM demand is provided. Variation of major characteristics of the UAM transport system allows different scenarios to be developed and analyzed

Urban Air Mobility Use Cases, Missions and Technology Scenarios for the HorizonUAM Project

The term Urban Air Mobility covers many several applications to meet different transport needs. The cross-institutional and interdisciplinary research project "HorizonUAM - Urban Air Mobility Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)" brings together a wide variety of departments from the DLR research fields to research on the vision of Urban Air Mobility. This paper describes the five use cases Intra-City, Mega-City, Airport-Shuttle, SubUrban and Inter-City, which were defined in order to create a common working basis for the project. In addition to the description of the transport needs, the paper presents technology scenarios, mission profiles, concepts of operation, vehicle configurations and infrastructure related to the use cases. Based on the defined use cases, technical feasibility, efficiency, sustainability, market development potential and social acceptance will be investigated in the course of the project