eVTOL operations take a step closer in the UK as aviation regulator looks at vertiport design proposals

The UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty has launched a new con­sul­ta­tion on design pro­pos­als for ver­ti­ports at exist­ing aero­dromes, which will help pave the way for the entry of eVTOL air­craft oper­a­tions in the coun­try.

The con­sul­ta­tion — which clos­es on Fri­day, March 15th — looks to ensure that the future oper­a­tions at the aero­dromes look­ing to sup­port the activ­i­ties of eVTOL air­craft are safe, effi­cient, equi­table and secure.

It comes after exten­sive engage­ment with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the indus­try includ­ing ver­ti­port devel­op­ers, exist­ing aero­dromes, and poten­tial oper­a­tors. With hun­dreds of air­fields dot­ted across the UK, a net­work to con­nect com­mu­ni­ties by air will be pos­si­ble.

Sophie O’Sullivan, Head of Future Safe­ty and Inno­va­tion, said: “We are a com­mit­ted part­ner to the Government’s Future of Flight Pro­gramme and enabling the intro­duc­tion of inno­v­a­tive infra­struc­ture is one of our key strate­gic objec­tives. This con­sul­ta­tion is a big step towards enabling this new and inno­v­a­tive way of trav­el­ling to become part of our every­day life.

“UK aero­dromes are vital in unlock­ing the future of avi­a­tion oper­a­tions. By lever­ag­ing exist­ing reg­u­la­tion, we’re enabling future oper­a­tors and aero­dromes to devel­op their under­stand­ing and oper­a­tional exper­tise, at the same time as grow­ing our col­lec­tive knowl­edge of the tech­nol­o­gy and oper­a­tional sce­nar­ios to sup­port this infra­struc­ture.”

The pro­pos­als put for­ward by the UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty acknowl­edge that exist­ing aero­dromes are already equipped to han­dle avi­a­tion activ­i­ties and are best placed to have the first design spec­i­fi­ca­tions for ver­ti­ports intro­duced.

Using exist­ing infra­struc­ture will give VTOL air­craft a place to oper­ate from whilst the avi­a­tion indus­try becomes more famil­iar with their design, oper­a­tions and per­for­mance.

The fac­tors being con­sult­ed on look at plac­ing addi­tion­al safe­ty require­ments on exist­ing aero­dromes should they want to estab­lish VTOL air­craft oper­a­tions.

This includes:

• The design of oper­at­ing areas
• Obsta­cle lim­i­ta­tion sur­faces and visu­al aids
• Res­cue and fire­fight­ing ser­vices

The design prin­ci­ples set out will form the ini­tial basis of bespoke ver­ti­port design, the fur­ther detail of which will be estab­lished once VTOL air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers and oper­a­tors pro­vide fur­ther data.

It fol­lows the reg­u­la­tor pub­lish­ing guid­ance on how the eVTOL indus­try could adopt key con­sumer prin­ci­ples, which high­light­ed the impor­tance of new air­craft and infra­struc­ture being acces­si­ble for those with reduced mobil­i­ty.

Response to the con­sul­ta­tion can be made via the UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Authority’s ded­i­cat­ed con­sul­ta­tion web­page.

The UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Authority’s recent guid­ance on Con­sumer Prin­ci­ples for the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty indus­try can be found on its web­site.