Helinet and Urban Movement Labs to explore how eVTOL technology can be integrated into air travel in Los Angeles

Helinet is to work with Urban Move­ment Labs (UML) to explore the future of air trav­el hand-in-hand with eVTOL air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers and the advanced air mobil­i­ty indus­try in Los Ange­les.

This part­ner­ship will explore how avi­a­tion oper­a­tors like Helinet may inte­grate new eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy into their oper­a­tions to reduce com­mu­ni­ty impacts while enhanc­ing safe­ty and effi­cien­cy. Lessons learned will inform pol­i­cy and reg­u­la­to­ry deci­sions that will shape urban air mobil­i­ty in cities.

In addi­tion, it will also inform ground-based infra­struc­ture needs, like addi­tion­al elec­tric charg­ing capac­i­ty, at both Helinet’s facil­i­ties and com­mer­cial air­ports more broad­ly.

Justin Erbac­ci, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Los Ange­les World Air­ports, said: “Los Ange­les World Air­ports wel­comes the new part­ner­ship between Helinet and Urban Move­ment Labs. With the devel­op­ment of Urban Air Mobil­i­ty, many of Helinet’s key mis­sions, includ­ing med­ical deliv­ery, firefight­ing, and news gath­er­ing could be flown in much qui­eter, zero-emis­sion elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing air­craft in the not-too-dis­tant future.”

Helinet’s expe­ri­ence in char­tered pas­sen­ger trav­el, trans­port­ing med­ical sup­plies, the time-sen­si­tive deliv­ery of organs, rapid par­cel deliv­ery, aer­i­al firefight­ing, and film­ing from the sky will inform a future where these appli­ca­tions can be com­plet­ed by eVTOLs.

Today, Helinet trans­ports over 900 organs per year. As the pri­ma­ry heli­copter provider for Children’s Hos­pi­tal Los Ange­les (CHLA), Helinet has two ded­i­cat­ed air­craft to trans­port crit­i­cal­ly ill chil­dren. Since the incep­tion of this pro­gram in 1998, Helinet has reached more than 10,000 trips in sup­port of CHLA.

Kathryn Pur­win, CEO at Helinet, said: “Helinet val­ues the benefits of new eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy, which can pos­i­tive­ly impact the envi­ron­ment and mit­i­gate noise impacts on local com­mu­ni­ties. This part­ner­ship with UML will let us explore route oppor­tu­ni­ties, charg­ing sta­tion tech­nol­o­gy imple­men­ta­tion, and the test­ing of advanced air mobil­i­ty air­craft.”

UML is a first-of-its-kind mobil­i­ty-inno­va­tion organ­i­sa­tion that links gov­ern­ment, busi­ness­es, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions to help solve trans­porta­tion chal­lenges in the City of Los Ange­les and beyond. It is com­mit­ted to a com­mu­ni­ty-first approach and ensur­ing that mobil­i­ty inno­va­tions help build safe, equi­table, and sus­tain­able cities.

Los Ange­les May­or Eric Garcetti announced The Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Part­ner­ship in Decem­ber 2020, which was first out­lined in the Prin­ci­ples of the Urban Sky, co-authored by the World Eco­nom­ic Forum and the City of Los Ange­les. Now enter­ing its sec­ond year, the Part­ner­ship has added addi­tion­al mem­bers and con­tin­ues its work to help Los Ange­les define the future of mobil­i­ty.

Sam Mor­ris­sey, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor at Urban Move­ment Labs, added: “At UML, we are proud to part­ner with Helinet. Our Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Part­ner­ship will benefit from Helinet’s expe­ri­ence as a com­mer­cial avi­a­tion oper­a­tor, inform­ing pol­i­cy devel­op­ment for both aer­i­al oper­a­tions and ground-based infra­struc­ture needs.

“Addi­tion­al­ly, the social-focused use cas­es, such as trans­port­ing crit­i­cal­ly ill chil­dren to hos­pi­tals, organ deliv­ery, and firefight­ing mis­sions, rep­re­sent a huge val­ue to the part­ner­ship mem­bers.”