Airbus Lays Foundations for Future Urban Air Mobility in Germany

May 19, 2022

The Air Mobility Initiative will set up a series of research projects aimed at making urban air mobility within and between cities like Munich, Germany a reality.

To contribute to the development of advanced air mobility, leading companies, universities, and research institutions, as well as municipalities, are joining forces under the leadership of Airbus to form the Air Mobility Initiative (AMI). The members of the Air Mobility Initiative include Airbus, City of Ingolstadt, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Flugsicherung, Diehl Aerospace, Droniq, Munich Airport, Red Cross, and Telekom.

This initiative, which is supported by the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany, will set up a series of research projects aimed at making urban air mobility within and between cities a reality. The joint projects are centered around three main areas: electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, unmanned traffic management (UTM) services, airport & city integration including vertiports.

"In many parts of the world, eVTOLs will offer a whole new mobility service in the near future," said Markus May, Head of Operations for urban air mobility at Airbus. "Airbus and the AMI partners are aware that the introduction of such a system requires the cooperation of many players with different competences. Our goal is to build a transport service that benefits society and this is what we are setting up here in Bavaria.”

In a first step, the AMI partners will address the technological, infrastructural, legal, and social prerequisites for the future implementation of advanced air transport. Subsequently, the knowledge gained will be carried through a demonstration project under real conditions with eVTOLs.

Airbus is leading the vehicle stream together with Diehl Aerospace, University of Stuttgart and other partners. The UTM activities will deal with the safe and efficient flight of vehicles on their routes in and outside cities. This area is being advanced together with Droniq, Airbus, f.u.n.k.e. Avionics, SkyFive, BrigkAir, DFS, Telekom, Universities from Munich and Hamburg and other partners. Through the vertiport activities, AMI will work on take-off and landing sites for the aircraft, as well as their integration into airports and cities. Munich Airport, Deutsche Bahn, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Airport Nürnberg, and the Universities of Ingolstadt and Munich are responsible for this topic.

Work on the individual AMI projects began in January 2022. The test flights of the demonstration project will be carried out in the region around Ingolstadt. The initiative is funded with a total of €17 million from the Free State of Bavaria and €24 million from the Federal Government. Together with the industry's own funds, this results in a total activity of € 86 million over a period of three years.

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