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"... With more than 250 businesses [in the U.S. as of August 2020] planning to build, operate, or manufacture urban-air-mobility (UAM) vehicles, all at different stages of development, a growing assortment of industry players is working across the value chain to make this dream a reality. Enabled by vertical-takeoff and -landing (VTOL) systems, electric propulsion, and advanced flight-control capabilities, these vehicles could eventually reach price points rivaling today’s taxi services. The resulting flying vehicles will be energy efficient, quiet, environmentally friendly, and eventually pilotless. ...
Adding new transportation capacity in most cities is extremely expensive, especially if it involves tunneling for subways or bypasses. The cost of building a subway in a city can exceed $500 million per mile, for instance. ...
The physical infrastructure will be an important determinant for the size of the addressable market, since the only trips possible are between VTOL ports. If only a few ports are available, flying-vehicle transport could follow a pattern similar to that seen in today’s helicopter market, where the number of potential destinations is limited. For instance, helicopter trips in cities such as London and New York can only occur between major airports and select locations in city centers—the only locations with available ports. If leaders want to scale the UAM market and not face the limits seen with today’s helicopter transport, they must establish many more ports, as well as more routes among them. ..."
To take off, flying vehicles first need places to land The buzz about vehicles flying above hides the infrastructure challenge below. Our discussion focuses on intracity and metropolitan UAM travel with a distance of under 50 miles.
