INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NASA and a clutch of startup and established companies are moving forward with plans to transform mobility in urban environments through
the Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge.
If it fully implemented, the new Urban Air Mobility system could enable air transit for things like
package delivery, taxi services, expanded air medical services and cargo delivery to underserved or rural communities, the agency said in a
statement.
The Grand Challenge series brings together companies developing new transportation or airspace management technologies, the
Agency said.
With this step, we&re continuing to put the pieces together that we hope will soon make real the long-anticipated vision of
smaller piloted and unpiloted vehicles providing a variety of services around cities and in rural areas,& said Robert Pearce, NASA associate
administrator for aeronautics, in a statement.
The idea is to bring companies to collaborate and also give regulatory agencies a window into
the technologies and how they may work in concert to bring air mobility to the masses in the coming years.
Our partnership with the FAA will
be a key factor in the successful and safe outcomes for industry that we can expect from conducting these series of Grand Challenges during
the coming years,& Pearce said, in a statement.
Getting the agreements signed are the first step in a multi-stage process that will
culminate in the challenge official competition in 2022
There are preliminary technological tests that will take place this year.
We consider this work as a risk reduction step toward Grand
Challenge 1,& said Starr Ginn, NASA Grand Challenge lead
&It is designed to allow United States developed aircraft and airspace management service providers to essentially try out their systems
with real-world operations in simulated environments that we also will be flight testing to gain experience.
Partnerships for the challenge
fall into three categories:
Developmental Flight Testing: These are industry partners providing vehicles that will fly in the
challenge.
Developmental Airspace Simulation: Companies will test traffic management services in NASA-designed airspace simulations for
urban air mobility.
Vehicle Provider Information Exchange: These partners are also working closely with NASA to provide information about
their vehicles so NASA can prep them for possible flight activities that will occur during the 2022 Grand Challenge.
The Grand Challenge is
managed through NASA Advanced Air Mobility project, which was established in the agency Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate to
coordinate urban air mobility activities.
Companies participating in the challenge include:
Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, California
AirMap,
Inc., of Santa Monica, California
AiRXOS, Inc., of Chantilly, Virginia
ANRA Technologies, Inc., of Chantilly, Virginia
ARINC Inc., of Cedar
Rapids, Iowa
Avision, Inc., of Santa Monica, California
Ellis - Associates, Los Angeles, California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lacuna
Technologies, Palo Alto, California
GeoRq LLC of Holladay, Utah
Metron Aviation, Inc., of Herndon, Virginia
OneSky Systems Inc., of Exton,
Pennsylvania
Uber Technologies, Inc., of San Francisco, California
The University of North Texas of Denton, Texas
Bell Textron of Ft
Worth, Texas
The Boeing Company of Chantilly, Virginia
NFT Inc., of Mountain View, California
Prodentity, LLC of Corrales, New Mexico
Zeva
Inc., of Spanaway, Washington
