Japan: Major AAM trials to take place in Tokyo

Par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Tokyo Met­ro­pol­i­tan Gov­ern­men­t’s project for the social imple­men­ta­tion of AAM (Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty) via the con­duct­ing of tri­als on new mobil­i­ty ser­vices and scenic flights by eVTOLs may soon begin, reports a press release.

A pro­pos­al has been sub­mit­ted by the col­lab­o­ra­tive team of Mit­subishi, Japan Air­lines and Kane­mat­su Corps. The pur­pose of this two-year project lead­ing up to the end of 2024, is to explore a vari­ety of busi­ness mod­els based on AAM in the Tokyo Met­ro­pol­i­tan area.

The release states, “(This) includes trans­porta­tion ser­vices con­nect­ing cen­tral Toky­o’s major hubs, Air­port access, trans­porta­tion services/scenic flights in iso­lat­ed island areas and to exam­ine aspects such as oper­a­tional issues/profitability through demon­stra­tion oper­a­tion of heli­copters in 2023 and eVTOL and land­ing air­crafts in 2024.”

It is hoped AAM will help resolve a range of social issues that include end­ing urban con­ges­tion, pro­vide means of trans­port in regions with under­de­vel­oped trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture dur­ing times of dis­as­ter, reduce trav­el time, and offer pri­vate, lux­u­ri­ous mobil­i­ty expe­ri­ences.

In Japan, the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors are cur­rent­ly work­ing togeth­er in the AAM field, where focus is on the Osa­ka Expo in 2025. The aim is to have fleets of eVTOLs fly­ing the pub­lic to and from this major event.

Project Overview
2022: Iden­ti­fy issues and solu­tions asso­ci­at­ed with the imple­men­ta­tion of AAM. Con­duct sur­veys and exam­ine busi­ness mod­els, etc.

: Iden­ti­fy issues asso­ci­at­ed with con­struc­tion, nec­es­sary con­di­tions, and oper­a­tion of ver­ti­ports that enable high-den­si­ty, high-fre­quen­cy AAM ser­vices in Tokyo which is over­crowd­ed with build­ings.

: Esti­mate sales and oper­a­tional costs of expect­ed routes, poten­tial route for future expan­sion, and oth­er mat­ters. Review aspects such as mar­ket size and busi­ness dura­bil­i­ty in Tokyo.

2023: Launch demon­stra­tion oper­a­tion of intracity access and scenic flights with a heli­copter.

: Study and build two heli­ports in facil­i­ties owned or man­aged by Mit­subishi Estate Co., Ltd among oth­ers, and offer scenic flights at the respec­tive heli­ports and transportation/chartered ser­vices con­nect­ing the two heli­ports.

: Con­duct fea­si­bil­i­ty study of busi­ness case of futur­is­tic trans­porta­tion ser­vice with eVTOL.

2024: Launch demon­stra­tion oper­a­tion of eVTOL
: Expand the heli­ports oper­at­ed in FY2023, con­sid­er con­struc­tion of ver­ti­ports with the coop­er­a­tion of Sky­ports, a UK com­pa­ny that builds and oper­ates ver­ti­ports glob­al­ly. Also,

: Review eVTOL flight demon­stra­tions and on-ground oper­a­tions (e.g., takeoff/landing con­trol and sim­u­la­tion, check-in and secu­ri­ty checks, safe­ty man­age­ment and sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness of sur­round­ing areas) con­duct­ed at the ver­ti­port.

Osa­ka Expo 2025

Roles of Par­tic­i­pat­ing Com­pa­nies

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.kanematsu.co.jp/en/press/20220804_002934.html

(Top pic: METI/Ken Okuya­ma Design Image)