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Airbus, German partners form Air Mobility Initiative

Airbus has partnered with German companies, universities, research institutions and municipalities to form the Air Mobility Initiative to advance the urban air mobility sector in the country and around the world. Some of the members of the Air Mobility Initiative (AMI) currently include the City of Ingolstadt, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Flugsicherung, Diehl Aerospace, Droniq, Munich Airport, Red Cross and Telekom (full list below).

Airbus explains this initiative, which is supported by the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany, will set up a series of research projects aimed at making urban air mobility within and between cities a reality. The joint projects are centered around three main areas: electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, unmanned traffic management (UTM) services, and airport and city integration including vertiports.

“In many parts of the world, eVTOLs will offer a whole new mobility service in the near future,” said Markus May, Head of Operations for urban air mobility at Airbus. “Airbus and the AMI partners are aware that the introduction of such a system requires the cooperation of many players with different competences. Our goal is to build a transport service that benefits society and this is what we are setting up here in Bavaria.”

In a first step, Airbus explains the AMI partners will address the technological, infrastructural, legal and social prerequisites for the future implementation of advanced air transport. Subsequently, the knowledge gained will be carried through a demonstration project under real conditions with eVTOLs.

Airbus explains it is leading the vehicle stream of AMI together with Diehl Aerospace, University of Stuttgart and other partners. The UTM activities of the initiative will deal with the safe and efficient flight of vehicles on their routes in and outside cities. This area is being advanced by Droniq, Airbus, f.u.n.k.e. Avionics, SkyFive, BrigkAir, DFS, Telekom, Universities from Munich and Hamburg and other partners.

Through the vertiport activities, AMI will work on take-off and landing sites for the aircraft as well as their integration into airports and cities. Munich Airport, Deutsche Bahn, Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Airport Nürnberg, Universities of Ingolstadt and Munich are responsible for this topic.

Work on the individual AMI projects began in January 2022. The test flights of the demonstration project will be carried out in the region around Ingolstadt. The initiative is funded with a total of €17 million from the Free State of Bavaria and €24 million from the German Government. Together with the industry’s own funds, this results in a total activity of € 86 million over a period of three years.

The AMI partners in alphabetical order are: Airbus, APSYS Risk Engineering GmbH, amd sigma strategic airport development GmbH, Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V., Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz, brigk – Digitales Gründerzentrum der Region Ingolstadt GmbH, C-3 Comm Systems, DB Regio represented by Regionalverkehr Oberbayern GmbH (RVO), DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH, Diehl Aerospace GmbH, Droniq GmbH, EchoStar Mobile Limited, Flughafen Nürnberg GmbH – Airport Nürnberg, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., f.u.n.k.e. AVIONICS GmbH, HENSOLDT Sensors GmbH, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Munich Airport International GmbH, Schwarzbild Medienproduktion GmbH, SkyFive AG, Skyports, Stadt Ingolstadt, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Technische Universität Hamburg, Technische Universität München, Telekom Deutschland GmbH, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Universität Stuttgart.