Urban Air Mobility: Debunking the Myths of ‘Flying Cars’

By Kai-Tse Lin, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Bellwether Industries

Kai-Tse Lin, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Bellwether Industries

With the popularity of cars and lower driving costs, people are more likely to access this method of transport. But this is also the reason why traffic congestion happens.

Ever since the idea of an aeroplane was born, humans have tried to make flying cars a reality. Technologies have continued to advance since the 1960s and research and development of electrification has sped up the growth of this lucrative market, which according to Morgan Stanley is estimated to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040.

This new era of aviation is going to be here sooner than you think. There are limitless possibilities to this technology, with many predicting a future with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and unmanned delivery drones being a normality in our cities.

So as we edge ever closer to this being a genuine option for inter-city and intra-city transport, with the first commercial passenger-carrying services likely to be operational as early as 2024, it’s worth understanding some myths that exist around urban air mobility and why they require ‘debunking’.

The Myths Surrounding Urban Air Mobility and eVTOL aircraft

With an industry as new as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), it’s understandable for companies and those working in this space to be faced with questions about whether it will be a long-term success.

One public myth is that ‘flying cars’ are just a ‘pipe dream’. When the first mobile phone was launched in 1984, it was met with the similar scepticism of ‘why’, and if the unimaginable capabilities of the modern mobile were mentioned they’d have been laughed out of the building.

However, the technological developments over the last three decades have gone from a simple phone call to having an entire computer in a pocket-sized, ultra streamlined design. What began as another ‘pipe dream’ is now a part of our everyday lives – and that’s just the plan for eVTOL aircraft and UAM travel.

A second example is that flying cars are just another version of conventional aircraft that have been in the skies for decades. People take things too simple; UAM is much more than building aircraft which are just bigger-sized drones and smaller-sized aeroplanes. It is carving a totally different path from conventional air transportation.

Why UAM is no longer a ‘pipe dream’

Urban Air Mobility is going to be here in a matter of years. The thought of taking a trip in a flying car, travelling over congestion hotspots to arrive at your destination in minutes rather than hours, is appealing to everyone who travels on the ground.

The last 12 months have seen significant developments in the industry, which saw companies such as Archer, Lilium, Joby Aviation and Vertical Aerospace become publicly-listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ. Billions of dollars have already been invested in the UAM market, and that trend will continue in future.

It’s also worth noting that UAM aircraft will be certified and regulated to the highest aviation safety standards possible, from the likes of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the Federal Aviation Administration in the USA and the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority. These organisations are helping to move the development of UAM forward.

There’s also a big difference between UAM aircraft and traditional air transport we’re used to seeing. UAM aircraft are designed for journeys of between 30 miles and 150 miles, while a typical wingspan of an aeroplane is three to four times bigger than most UAM aircraft.

In terms of power sources, most aeroplanes are powered by fuel and only a few are powered by electricity. By contrast, UAM aircraft are going to be powered by green energy, such as electricity and hydrogen. It is becoming evident that these aircraft are relatively eco-friendly compared to aeroplanes.

UAM not only has a new aircraft category but also needs tailored infrastructure, air traffic management systems and planned maintenance, because UAM has to adapt to the complexity of the urban environment. These elements are composed of a complete ecosystem to handle this issue.

What Does The Future of Travel Truly Look Like?

From a sustainability standpoint, the majority of current aeroplanes being used are powered by diesel combustion engines. Compared to current transportation methods, a standard Boeing 737 aircraft emits approximately 90kg of carbon dioxide per hour!

The technology to produce the batteries needed to power eVTOL aircraft is rapidly advancing, with many suggesting that by the next decade, the majority of aeroplane fleets will be powered by electricity.

Electric aircraft would not only eliminate direct carbon emissions, but they could also reduce fuel costs by up to 90 per cent, maintenance costs by 50 per cent and noise by nearly 70 per cent.

Given the relationship between today’s transportation and cities, we know that different kinds of transportation are complementary to each other. Public and private transport will exist together and the diversity of transportation supports cities’ operation.

Passenger-carrying services continue to get a lot of attention, but it’s important to realise there will be services catering for private use as well. The majority of commuters don’t necessarily travel into the city or to the airport everyday. Added benefits of private transport – which include added flexibility, convenience, privacy and time savings – are some reasons why passengers would rather use this type of travel over aircraft transporting multiple passengers. According to a report by Transport for London (TfL), it said there were ‘over 4 million daily car journeys, and 67% of these journeys were less than 5 kilometres long.’

And further afield, in the first survey conducted by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on UAM, 83 per cent of respondents had a positive initial attitude and 71 per cent were ready to try out UAM services. The top three expected benefits were improved response time in emergencies (71 per cent), reduction of traffic jams (51 per cent), reduction of local emissions (48 per cent) and development of local area (41 per cent).

A future vision is the idea of a three-dimensional lifestyle. In the past, people could only live on the ground and aeroplanes could only bring people from one place to another. UAM will change people’s lives to a large extent, by offering them an opportunity to start a life in the air. In addition to transportation in the air, it is likely that there will soon be more things brought to the air to complement this trend. UAM is the first step for people to live in the air and change from a 2D to a 3D lifestyle.

UAM is worth the public’s attention and expectations and it is only a matter of time when this new era of aviation becomes commonplace in society. It’s hard to understand and envisage such a huge advancement coming so quickly, but when the first eVTOL aircraft are planned for public use within the next three years at the earliest, the world needs to prepare for its arrival sooner rather than later.