Hyundai’s UAM division joins General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)

Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) divi­sion has become an Asso­ciate Mem­ber Full of the Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Man­u­fac­tur­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (GAMA).

The inter­na­tion­al trade asso­ci­a­tion rep­re­sents more than 100 of the world’s lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers of gen­er­al avi­a­tion air­planes and rotor­craft, engines, avion­ics, com­po­nents and relat­ed ser­vices. GAMA’s mem­bers also oper­ate repair sta­tions, fixed based oper­a­tions, pilot and main­te­nance train­ing facil­i­ties and man­age fleets of air­craft.

Pete Bunce, GAMA Pres­i­dent and CEO, said: “We wel­come Hyundai Motor Group’s Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion to GAMA. It is excit­ing to see auto­mo­tive man­u­fac­tur­ers enter the advanced air mobil­i­ty sec­tor of the avi­a­tion indus­try.

“The inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies that are com­ing out of this rapid­ly grow­ing sec­tor are pro­pelling gen­er­al and busi­ness avi­a­tion into the future.”

By join­ing as an Asso­ciate Mem­ber Full, Hyundai joins oth­er eVTOL devel­op­ers such as Lil­i­um, Joby Avi­a­tion, Uber Ele­vate and Wisk. Oth­er mem­bers include Air­bus, Bell, Boe­ing, Embraer and Volo­copter.

Hyundai Motor Com­pa­ny teamed up with ride-hail­ing firm Uber to build and devel­op air taxis for use in cities around the world, with the aim of being com­mer­cial­ly oper­a­tional by 2023.

The announce­ment was made at the 2020 CES tech­nol­o­gy con­fer­ence in Las Vegas, which took place in Jan­u­ary. It was where Hyundai unveiled its all-elec­tric self-fly­ing con­cept, the SA‑1.

The air taxi can car­ry up to four pas­sen­gers and fly on trips up to 60 miles (100km), at an alti­tude of between 1,000–2,000ft. It will be pilot­ed ini­tial­ly, before even­tu­al­ly becom­ing autonomous, and will only need between five and sev­en min­utes to recharge – accord­ing to the auto­mo­tive giant.

For more infor­ma­tion about GAMA mem­ber­ship cri­te­ria, vis­it gama.aero.