Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise
The scalability of the current air traffic control system, the availability of aviation ground infrastructure, and the acceptability of aircraft noise to local communities have been identified as three key operational constraints that may limit the implementation or growth of Urban Air Mobility (UAM...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126695 |
| _version_ | 1826205114651639808 |
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| author | Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J |
| author_sort | Vascik, Parker Denys |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The scalability of the current air traffic control system, the availability of aviation ground infrastructure, and the acceptability of aircraft noise to local communities have been identified as three key operational constraints that may limit the implementation or growth of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) systems. This paper identifies the primary mechanisms through which each constraint emerges to limit the number of UAM operations in an area (i.e. the scale of the service). Technical, ecosystem, or operational factors that influence each of the mechanisms are also identified. Interdependencies between the constraints are shown. Potential approaches to reduce constraint severity through adjustments to the mechanisms are introduced. Finally, an effort is made to characterize the severity of each operational constraint as a function of the density of UAM operations in a region of interest. To this end, a measure of severity is proposed for each constraint. This measure is used to notionally display how the severity of the constraint responds to UAM scaling, and to identify scenarios where efforts to relieve the constraint are most effective. The overall purpose of this paper is to provide an abstraction of the workings of the key UAM operational constraints so that researchers, developers, and practitioners may guide their efforts to mitigation pathways that are most likely to increase achievable UAM system scale. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:06:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/126695 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:06:58Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1266952022-10-01T13:11:13Z Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics The scalability of the current air traffic control system, the availability of aviation ground infrastructure, and the acceptability of aircraft noise to local communities have been identified as three key operational constraints that may limit the implementation or growth of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) systems. This paper identifies the primary mechanisms through which each constraint emerges to limit the number of UAM operations in an area (i.e. the scale of the service). Technical, ecosystem, or operational factors that influence each of the mechanisms are also identified. Interdependencies between the constraints are shown. Potential approaches to reduce constraint severity through adjustments to the mechanisms are introduced. Finally, an effort is made to characterize the severity of each operational constraint as a function of the density of UAM operations in a region of interest. To this end, a measure of severity is proposed for each constraint. This measure is used to notionally display how the severity of the constraint responds to UAM scaling, and to identify scenarios where efforts to relieve the constraint are most effective. The overall purpose of this paper is to provide an abstraction of the workings of the key UAM operational constraints so that researchers, developers, and practitioners may guide their efforts to mitigation pathways that are most likely to increase achievable UAM system scale. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NNL13AA08B) 2020-08-20T01:34:58Z 2020-08-20T01:34:58Z 2018-06 2019-10-25T17:07:22Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 9781624105562 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126695 Vascik, Parker D. and R. John Hansman. "Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise." 2018 Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference, June 2018, Atlanta, Georgia, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, June 2018. © 2018 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics en http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-3849 2018 Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Vascik, Parker Denys Hansman Jr, Robert J Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise |
| title | Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise |
| title_full | Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise |
| title_fullStr | Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise |
| title_short | Scaling Constraints for Urban Air Mobility Operations: Air Traffic Control, Ground Infrastructure, and Noise |
| title_sort | scaling constraints for urban air mobility operations air traffic control ground infrastructure and noise |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126695 |
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