City Air Mobility in Korea Good Geo Expo

Two years in the past, in November of 2020, the Mayor of Seoul took a journey in an EHang 216.  The autonomous check flight was launched over the densely populated metropolis of Seoul, underneath a “Particular Certificates of Airworthiness,” the primary ever granted in Korea to a passenger-grade AAV.

The flight marked the primary trial flight after the Korea authorities introduced the “Korean City Air Mobility (Ok-UAM) Roadmap” in June 2020, projecting that business passenger drone providers could be accessible as quickly as 2023.   One yr later, in November of 2021, Volocopter launched their first crewed check flight in Seoul, with Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter stating: “With MOLIT’s complete Ok-UAM roadmap, South Korea is properly positioned to attain the purpose of commercializing UAM by 2025.”

It’s a short while body.  However because the spectacular show of scale fashions, full-size plane, flight simulators, and extra on show at this week’s Good Geo Expo in Goyang demonstrates, the Korean authorities, trade, and persons are able to take off.

Individuals crowded in to the UAM corridor to expertise flight simulations of what an air taxi appears like.  In a mixture of amusement park journey expertise and extremely subtle engineering, contributors donned VR headsets and took their seats to expertise UAM flight – in some instances as a passenger, in others as a pilot.  It was an incredible expertise – not fairly like driving in an airplane, not precisely like driving in an elevator: however definitely safe, and as a primary time passenger, thrilling.

Maybe most attention-grabbing concerning the S. Korean UAM sector is the big variety of trade contributors.  Along with Ehang and Hyundai’s Supernal have been fashions of the Hanwha Techniques Butterfly, collectively developed with US-based OverAir.  The lean-rotor eVTOL is designed to attenuate noise.   Kencoa Aerospace’s AstroX’s open cockpit design with pontoons was completely not like different fashions on show: it’s designed to be flown from a ship to the airport.   Analysis establishments and authorities businesses participated in growing the simulators on show.

Scale fashions of vertiports – and vertistops, like a subway station or bus cease – underneath design have been additionally on show, to provide folks an concept of what the UAM infrastructure will appear to be.

From the road of younger folks, enterprise folks, and spectators ready to expertise UAM flight in a simulation surroundings, air taxis can be met with enthusiasm when the do launch commercially.

 

 

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