Urban Air Mobility Perspectives Over Mid-Term Time Horizon: Main Enabling Technologies Readiness Review

The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Since 2007, more than half of the world’s population has been living in cities, and according to the United Nations that share is projected to rise to 60% by 2030. With a rising population and more cars on the road, travelling across metropolitan areas is increasingly becoming slower and not efficient in terms of energy usage, fuel consumption, and productivity. This significant urban population growth is pushing towards innovative mobility options design, as ground infrastructure becomes increasingly congested. In this framework, a novel transportation concept has been proposed aimed to exploit the vertical dimension in urban transport environment: the Urban Air Mobility (UAM). This paper focuses on the description of the UAM perspectives over the mid-term time horizon, based on the consideration of the expected readiness level of the main enabling technologies for UAM implementation, while also considering aspects related to propulsion, information and communication technologies, infrastructures and U-Space, all of them necessary for the deployment of UAM. This work was carried out in the framework of the ASSURED UAM project (Acceptance Safety and Sustainability Recommendations for Efficient Deployment of UAM), funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 work programme.