Urban Air Mobility - PAS project

In recent years, several technological advancements in vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), electrification, and automation are enabling innovations in aviation business models and aircraft designs. These innovations are converging to create new aviation services commonly referred to as advanced air mobility (AAM). AAM is a broad concept focusing on emerging aviation markets and use cases for on-demand aviation in urban, suburban, and rural communities. AAM includes local use cases of about a 50-mile radius in rural or urban areas and intraregional use cases of up to a few hundred miles that occur within or between urban and rural areas. While AAM may be enabled by the convergence of several factors, a number of obstacles such as: community acceptance, safety, social equity, issues around planning and implementation, multimodal integration, sustainability, airspace, and operations, could create challenges for urban planners and barriers to mainstreaming. This study, a partnership between MTI and the American Planning Association, will develop a Planning Advisory Service report that does the following: (1) Provides planners with an overview of advanced air mobility and how it may impact communities and planning practice; (2) Discusses the potential impacts and challenges of AAM; (3) Explains considerations for integrating AAM with other transportation modes; - Examines how AAM can impact social equity and potential strategies for enhancing it and mitigating adverse impacts on underserved populations; and (4) Explains how AAM can be integrated into planning practice.