Eve releases Brazil’s first ConOps for future Urban Air Mobility market in Rio de Janeiro

Eve Urban Air Mobil­i­ty has pub­lished the first Con­cept of Oper­a­tions (CONOPS) doc­u­ment for the future Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) mar­ket in Rio de Janeiro.

The doc­u­ment brings togeth­er data and analy­ses that cov­er the per­spec­tive, points of atten­tion and oper­a­tional needs of eVTOL air­craft, the pas­sen­ger jour­ney, ser­vices and sup­port.

The design of the CONOPS includ­ed stud­ies on aspects that impact the UAM ecosys­tem, dis­cus­sion groups involv­ing the main pil­lars for its devel­op­ment, and a peri­od of flight oper­a­tions per­formed in Novem­ber 2021 between Bar­ra da Tiju­ca neigh­bour­hood and RIO­galeão Inter­na­tion­al Air­port that sim­u­lat­ed the UAM ecosys­tem with a heli­copter.

The com­mu­ni­ty was also able to par­tic­i­pate in this sim­u­la­tion by pur­chas­ing afford­able tick­ets on one of the six dai­ly flights con­duct­ed over the 30-day sim­u­la­tion peri­od. The data and infor­ma­tion col­lect­ed from this sim­u­la­tion will con­tribute to defin­ing the char­ac­ter­is­tics and needs for the devel­op­ment of urban air mobil­i­ty not only in Rio de Janeiro but also in oth­er places, cre­at­ing a UAM blue­print for any city.

Luiz Mauad, Vice Pres­i­dent of Ser­vices and Fleet Oper­a­tions at Eve, said: “All the part­ners of this work­ing group play essen­tial roles in the devel­op­ment of urban air mobil­i­ty.

“There­fore, this col­lab­o­ra­tive doc­u­ment was designed to bet­ter under­stand the char­ac­ter­is­tics and chal­lenges faced by this mode of trans­port. It also pro­vides infor­ma­tion about the UAM ecosys­tem that can not only be adapt­ed but also devel­oped with solu­tions to ensure a safe and sus­tain­able expan­sion.”

The CONOPS was devel­oped with eleven strate­gic part­ners and gov­ern­ment enti­ties. They include ANAC (Civ­il Avi­a­tion Agency of Brazil), DECEA (Depart­ment of Air­space Con­trol), EDP Brasil, Helisul Avi­ação, Sky­ports, Flap­per, RIO­galeão, Uni­ver­sal Avi­a­tion, ABAG (Brazil­ian Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Asso­ci­a­tion).

Addi­tion­al sup­port has come from Embraer’s Bea­con plat­form, that con­nects the ecosys­tem of air­craft main­te­nance ser­vices, and Ate­ch, a com­pa­ny spe­cial­is­ing in the con­trol and man­age­ment of both civ­il and mil­i­tary air traf­fic.

Eve hopes the CONOPS will encour­age all those respon­si­ble for this ecosys­tem to evolve togeth­er so that the indus­try, reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies, civ­il and gov­ern­ment enti­ties, and the com­mu­ni­ty can con­tin­ue invest­ing in, devel­op­ing, and inte­grat­ing this new mode of trans­porta­tion.

The CONOPS will be avail­able on Eve’s web­site for the entire com­mu­ni­ty to bet­ter under­stand how the UAM ecosys­tem will enable a new means of afford­able, safe and sus­tain­able trans­porta­tion.

Last month, Eve Air Mobil­i­ty teamed up with Thales to devel­op its eVTOL air­craft in Brazil in a series of joint stud­ies over a 12-month peri­od from Jan­u­ary 2022, which will focus on the tech­ni­cal, eco­nom­i­cal, and adapt­able fea­si­bil­i­ty of a 100 per cent elec­tri­cal­ly pow­ered air­craft.

Thales will con­tribute with its exper­tise in devel­op­ing avion­ics, elec­tric, flight con­trol, nav­i­ga­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and con­nec­tiv­i­ty sys­tems. 

Last Octo­ber, Eve Urban Air Mobil­i­ty and Avi­a­tion Man­age­ment Ser­vices Serviços Aeronáu­ti­cos (‘Avant­to’) announced a part­ner­ship aimed at devel­op­ing an Urban Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem in Brazil and across Latin Amer­i­ca, which includ­ed an order for 100 eVTOL air­craft, deliv­er­ies of which are expect­ed to start in 2026. 

The CONOPS will con­stant­ly evolve, so any sug­ges­tions or com­ments can be emailed to Contact@EveAirMobility.com.