UAV Airbus creates Air Mobility Initiative to promote urban air mobility in Germany

In collaboration with several companies from Germany, Airbus has established an Air Mobility Initiative in the Munich region. Together with companies such as the City of Ingolstadt, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Flugsicherung, Diehl Aerospace, Droniq, Munich Airport, Red Cross and Telekom, Airbus seeks to join forces to develop new solutions in the market over the next three years.

The initiative is financially supported by the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany. The Free State of Bavaria provides €17 Million and the Federal Government €24 Million. Over the course of this initiative, several research projects will be performed which are aiming at making urban air mobility available between cities.

According to Airbus, three main areas are in focus for the projects: electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, unmanned traffic management (UTM) services and airport & city integration including vertiports. To ensure that the implementation works, the AMI partners will address the technological, infrastructural, legal, and social requirements.

Markus May, Head of Operations for urban air mobility at Airbus, commented: “In many parts of the world, eVTOLs will offer a whole new mobility service in the near future […] 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.”

Regarding the responsibilities in the project, Airbus wrote: “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, Universities of Ingolstadt and Munich are responsible for this topic.”

The work on the individual projects has already started in January 2022. When possible, test flights of demonstration vehicles will be performed around the Ingolstadt area.