Advanced air mobility aircraft present a potential new growth market for business aviation fixed-base operators
ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY
Hard on the heels of new advanced air mobility (AAM) projects, ground infrastructure developers are building or planning launch and landing sites for a new generation of electric aircraft.
The fast-emerging AAM segment also presents a growth opportunity for airports and business aviation FBOs with existing infrastructure to support aircraft operations, assuming they can supply adequate electrical power or store and exchange batteries at their locations. “I do believe our current FBO structure is in a position to benefit,” says Ryan Waguespack, National Air Transportation Association (NATA) executive vice president of aircraft management, air charter services and MROs. “What is challenging is these aircraft are developing at such a rapid pace [while] infrastructure takes a lot longer.
“It’s going to pop up in pockets,” Waguespack predicts. “You’re going to see [AAM routes] in key markets, let’s say New York to D.C., or South Florida to Mid-Florida.” In late April, AAM ground infrastructure developer Urban-Air Port Ltd. unveiled its Air One deployable operations hub for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in a parking lot in Coventry, U.K., 100 mi. northwest of London. Erected in 11 weeks and planned for redeployment to other cities later this year, the prefabricated, 17,000-sq.-ft. radial structure is divided into zones that include a passenger lounge, cargo logistics hub, air vehicle hangar and control center. At the hub of the structure is a circular final approach and takeoff (FATO) platform that elevates to 19 ft.
AAM ground infrastructure developer Urban-Air Port Ltd. demonstrated its Air-One deployable operations hub for eVTOL aircraft in a parking lot in Coventry, UK. Credit: Urban-Air Port Ltd.
U.S.-based Supernal, a Hyundai Motor Group company that is developing an eVTOL aircraft for entry into service in 2028, has partnered with Urban-Air Port to display its SA-1 concept vehicle in the Air One hangar. Headed by Jaiwon Shin, formerly associate administrator of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Supernal is also involved in AAM development efforts in Miami and Los Angeles. Vertiport Development Vertiport developers in the U.S. have unveiled their own projects. Among them, real-estate development firm DIFCO, of Davenport, Iowa, said April 11 that it had started constructing an eVTOL vertiport in Rock Island, Illinois, declaring it the first such aeromedical facility in the U.S. Start-up Volatus Infrastructure unveiled plans on March 25 to erect a modular vertiport by late summer or early fall at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, site of the annual Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Oshkosh airshow. Many of the recently announced projects are spearheaded by ground infrastructure developers that intend to build and operate their own sites. “We will deliver an end-to-end solution, starting from identifying sites through to designing, permitting, building and then ongoing operation of the vertiport,” says Addison Ferrell, head of Americas for London-based Skyports. “That’s what we intend to deliver.” Skyports demonstrated a temporary “VoloPort” in Singapore in 2019 and plans to install a test vertiport in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. At the 2022 Singapore Airshow in February, Skyports and German eVTOL aircraft manufacturer Volocopter signed agreements to explore options for using the local Seletar Aerospace Park. Singapore’s government has expressed support of the companies launching operations within the Greater Southern Waterfront development, as well, says Ferrell. The startup company plans to build vertiports in other locations--plans that don’t preclude participation by FBOs to fill gaps in a future Skyports network. “We do look for opportunities to partner, and airports and FBOs are an instance where we might not [provide] the whole value chain,” Ferrell says. “But what we are really, frankly, most keen on is the ongoing operations. Whatever that looks like in a specific instance, whether it’s partnering with an FBO or an airport, we would do it.”
Vertiport developer Skyports has partnered with Embraer’s Eve Urban Air Mobility solutions to focus on vehicle-vertiport operations in Asia and the Americas. Credit: Skyports
Beta Technologies, based in Burlington, Vermont, has raised $796 million from venture capital and institutional investors to advance development of its Alia-250 eVTOL aircraft and supporting network of 65 charging sites, which includes on- and off-airport stations, extending from Burlington to Melbourne, Florida, and Bentonville, Arkansas. Beta has booked orders and options for the Alia from UPS Flight Forward, Blade Air Mobility, United Therapeutics and aircraft lessor LCI. Beta says it is “taking a few different approaches” to deploying a multimodal charging infrastructure that will work for electric cars, delivery trucks and buses, as well as aircraft. “In addition to rolling out our owned-and-operated charging stations along the road, we are working with FBOs and airports to design our network to strategic endpoints that are owned and operated by our customers, such as a distribution center,” Beta says in response to an inquiry. FBOs Eye AAM Already, several FBOs and fractional fleet operators have announced partnerships with AAM vehicle manufacturers to support or operate their aircraft. In early 2021, booking platform provider Blade Air Mobility announced agreements with FBO operator Ross Aviation—which later announced a merger with Atlantic Aviation--to build a vertiport for eVTOL aircraft at Westchester County Airport, New York, and with Vertiport Chicago to station eVTOLs in that city. Electric aircraft developer Joby Aviation, JetBlue Airways and FBO Signature Flight Support announced a partnership in July 2021 to anchor a market for aviation carbon credits. The FBO division of Luxembourg-based Luxaviation Group has partnered with Germany’s Lilium to support “airline operations” of the seven-seat Lilium Jet eVTOL aircraft and with French airport management company Edeis to support “common deployment” of AAM at 16 Edeis locations in France. “FBOs are well positioned for the discussion,” says Heidi Williams, NBAA director for air traffic services and infrastructure. “For early [AAM] operations, we’re probably going to need to utilize existing infrastructure and that may develop into something that is separate to AAM. But I think largely what makes sense is utilizing that existing infrastructure where possible.”
Eviation’s planned 9-passenger, 440 nm-range Alice, powered by two tail-mounted 640-kW MagniX magi650 electric propulsion units, is being developed toward certification in 2024. Credit: Joe G. Walker
Clay Lacy Aviation struck an agreement with Israel and U.S.-based Eviation Aircraft in September 2021 to provide charging for the Alice, Eviation’s planned nine-passenger, 440-nm-range electric aircraft. Powered by two tail-mounted 640-kW MagniX magni650 electric propulsion units with Hartzell propellers, the Alice is being developed toward the goal of certification in 2024. Clay Lacy operates FBOs at Van Nuys and John Wayne Orange County airports in California and will open a new FBO and hangar complex at Waterbury-Oxford Airport, Connecticut, in 2023. It operates several FAR Part 145 repair stations in California and Connecticut. “We founded our partnership with Eviation because as an FBO and a maintenance company we provide support to airplanes,” explains Scott Cutshall, Clay Lacy Aviation senior vice president of development and sustainability. “As planes start to transition to electric, we want to be able to support them from an FBO and an MRO capacity. Those are our business lines. I am a firm believer that electric aviation will dominate 500-nm-and-under [flights] in the future.”
Clay Lacy Aviation struck an agreement with Eviation Aircraft in September 2021 to provide charging of the Alice at its FBO locations. Credit: Clay Lacy Aviation
Different Charging Approaches Discussions with industry aspirants suggest there will be varied approaches to charging electric aircraft on the ramp. As AAM aircraft types near fruition, there are no settled specifications for a charging station or components such as a cord, plug or receptacle. Supplying electricity on-site could be done by swapping out drained batteries for charged units or drawing directly from the power grid. The European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) is developing standards for VTOL-specific ground infrastructure and airports. Through its Working Group 112 (WG-112), the non-profit standards organization based in Saint-Denis, France, lists guidance documents in progress for vertiport operators, VTOL charging infrastructure and automated ground movement equipment. In the U.S., standards organization SAE, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, has assembled several technical committees focused on advanced materials and aircraft electrification applicable to the AAM segment. Its AE-10 Committee on High Voltage is developing standards for electrified aircraft and supporting infrastructure “focusing on design and operational impacts of all high-voltage powertrain elements, such as electrical energy sources, wiring and interconnection, and the end systems they supply.” The AE-7D Committee is developing standards related to energy storage, including plug and receptacle charging interfaces. “In this area specifically, synergies are established with automotive battery charging standards, while taking into account aerospace safety and environmental requirements,” SAE says. ASTM International, formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials, is developing standards for AAM through its aviation committees and cross-functional steering groups. Skyports has partnerships with Volocopter and other AAM aircraft developers, including Embraer’s Eve Urban Air Mobility and Wisk Aero, the Boeing-Kittyhawk joint venture planning a fully autonomous eVTOL aircraft. Ferrell says Skyports advocates for commonality of infrastructure to avoid multiple approaches and participates in industry standards-setting bodies working toward that end. Simon Whalley, Skyports’ chief regulatory officer, is chairperson of EUROCAE WG-112, Subgroup 5, the committee focused on ground infrastructure and airports. Ferrell acknowledges, however, that Skyports may have to support different charging approaches initially. “Being vehicle agnostic, we do look to support the needs of the vehicles that land on our vertiports,” Ferrell says. “If that’s swapping batteries like Volocopter is planning to do, that’s a service we will offer. If it’s direct charging, that’s a service we will offer, as well. I’ll admit it gets challenging to do both at the same vertiport or even to have different direct-charging connectors as we’ve seen with [automotive] EVs.” Jörn Jaeger, Volocopter head of airspace and vertiports, explained his company’s approach at the EUROCAE Symposium in Warsaw, Poland, on April 28. “In some cases, it’s a real challenge, specifically looking at elevated vertiports on top of buildings,” he told the symposium. “We talk about additional electric supply that is needed to bring it on top of the roof and that creates a lot of cost. That’s why we have the battery-swap concept because we are convinced it is much easier and we can charge batteries at the optimal conditions even with a low power supply. That allows [us] to bring a vertiport to wherever it is needed.” Eviation and Clay Lacy Aviation were exploring the use of portable charging units that could be moved around a facility to bring electricity to the aircraft instead of the aircraft to electricity. A more traditional aircraft design like the sleek, fixed-wing Alice that uses existing runways will predate eVTOLs, Cutshall believes, preventing some of the complexities associated with vertiports. But for the foreseeable future, electric aircraft will enter an environment populated by fuel-burning aircraft that FBOs support with tank farms and fueling trucks.
Beta Technologies says the Alia-250 will be able to charge in less than an hour after a typical mission using a 300-500 kW charger. Credit: Beta Technologies
“We’re going to have airplanes pulling up to our FBOs that don’t take fuel,” says Cutshall. “The fuel is electricity. As an FBO that provides ground support, how do we deliver that? Not only what are the technical specifications--how do we physically deliver it—what’s the infrastructure that’s required to deliver it and how do we do it economically?” The fleet mix and level of activity on the ramp, the need to suppress a fire that could be caused by a thermal runaway of battery cells, environmental containment requirements and noise levels are among the safety and other considerations FBOs face in hosting electric aircraft, says NATA’s Waguespack. “The one thing we’ve been talking about consistently is the complexity of our ramps,” he says. “You’ve already got a high level of activity. You’re throwing in more propulsion methods and the complexity of moving batteries back and forth--forklifts, batteries, Jet A. The complexity of the ramp is going to get far more advanced than it has been.” Electrical Supply and Capacity AAM infrastructure will require continuous electrical supply and capacity to support regular operations by battery-powered aircraft, demands that could recalibrate FBO relationships with utility companies and nearby communities sharing the power grid. The number of chargers the grid can support is dependent on the specific location and existing infrastructure, groundside developers say. “Something that our industry needs to start looking at immediately is the grid,” says Katy Glynn, an account executive for the energy and performance division of Siemens Smart Infrastructure. “We’re looking at different aircraft; we’re looking at air safety; we’re talking about all of the essential things. But something we can start talking about right now is what do we need to do to enable the grid to handle this additional load and avail that power where it is going to be needed?” Whereas current developmental AAM vehicles charge at around 350-500 kw (the Eviation Alice has an 820-kw-hour battery system), EUROCAE is developing a 1 megawatt-per-aircraft charging standard to support rapid recharging of batteries. Certain areas in the U.S. could supply 1 megawatt with no problem, although others could be challenged, says John Kasuda, director of strategic projects with Siemens, a supplier of building electrification and control systems.
Siemens is supplying a custom electric vehicle charger for the new Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Credit: Siemens
Siemens is supplying a custom electric vehicle charger for the new Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. The Ford Charge Station Pro has a peak power of 19.2 kw. At peak charging power, the F-150 Lightning with extended-range battery “means a full charge from 15-100% in about 8 hr.,” according to Ford. The automaker is reportedly developing a high-speed charging cable for electric aircraft. “A lot of our expertise is coming through us being able to provide these stations for cars, trains and buses,” Kasuda says. “I would say the bus model is probably going to be the closest to these [AAM] vehicles because these vehicles will have relatively large power draws. The recharging becomes important because of the way they want to cycle these vehicles. You’re in essence trying to maintain enough charge on the battery to get it through the day, then at some point you pull it off line and put it on a charger. “There exist technologies today [for] megawatt capacity power levels that offer very fast charging for very large battery packs,” Kasuda advises. “We’re going to get better and better at these fast-charging stations, particularly at the higher level.” During the unveiling of the Volatus Infrastructure vertiport at Wittman Regional Airport in March, company cofounder Grant Fisk exuded confidence in the capacity of the local electrical grid to support eVTOL operations in Oshkosh. “The way the commercial power grid is set up it can usually handle the power needs for these,” Fisk says. “If we need to install, say, 20 chargers, then we may have to figure it out. But if we’re just talking about two, four, 10 chargers, the power grid as it exists will be able to handle it no problem.”
Skyports’ Ferrell estimates that a vertiport supporting “a FATO plus multiple gates” would have a power requirement of 2-5 megawatts. “There are various factors, the two biggest of which are the size of the vertiport and the draw expected from the aircraft that will be using it,” he says. “Rough order of magnitude, we would expect the power capacity needed to run a vertiport to range from 2 megawatts up to around 5 megawatts on the high end. If it needs to be less than that for whatever the reason may be, it’s going to [mean] slower charging, a longer time for the aircraft at the gate and less throughput.” Beta Technologies says the Alia-250 will be able to charge in less than an hour after a typical mission using a 300-500 kw charger. “Our chargers use a smart, dynamic charging profile to minimize impact to the grid while still delivering charge safely and efficiently,” the startup says. “In areas where existing infrastructure or utilities are sparing, we’re able to leverage existing resources, like integrating on-site solar production and battery energy storage.” Airspace Considerations An important consideration for AAM infrastructure developers is the airspace environment that will envelop future vertiports. In the U.S., the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has spearheaded work on AAM airspace integration in collaboration with the FAA and industry. Regulatory processes initiated by the FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) address airspace operating aspects such as FATO dimensions, orientation, lighting and markings. EASA released a guidance document in March, “Prototype Technical Specifications for the Design of VFR Vertiports,” that describes the physical characteristics, required obstacle environment, and visual aids, lights and markings of an operating site for VTOL-type aircraft. The document introduces the concept of an “obstacle-free volume,” a funnel-shaped area above a vertiport tailored to the operational capabilities of AAM aircraft. The European agency says its next step will be to develop “full-spectrum” regulatory requirements for vertiports to include detailed design specifications, requirements for authorities overseeing vertiports and requirements for vertiport operators. The FAA in March issued draft Engineering Brief 105 providing design guidance for vertiport and “vertistop” construction supporting eVTOL aircraft. The agency aims to publish a final EB 105 for vertiport design later this year after evaluating public comments. “Right now, the FAA has not indicated that they are looking to change infrastructure or add new infrastructure in terms of airways or airspace changes,” the NBAA’s Williams says. “At some point, as you see these operations scale up, we’re going to have to rethink [that]. We’re operating in an airspace environment that has been utilized for decades. It did not necessarily take into account emerging technologies like [unmanned] or eVTOL type of aircraft that may be more densely populated in what we have termed as uncontrolled airspace today.” Williams observes that AAM vehicles potentially will cross through controlled and uncontrolled airspace, including flying within the Mode C veil surrounding major airports where aircraft must be equipped with transponders and two-way communications. “I think we are going to have to take a fresh look at that,” she says.
—Based in Washington, DC, Bill Carey covers avionics, air traffic management and aviation safety for Aviation Week. A former daily newspaper reporter, he has covered the commercial, business and military aviation segments as well as unmanned aircraft systems. Prior to joining Aviation Week in November 2017, he worked for Aviation International News and Avionics and Rotor & Wing magazines.
