NATS Services Releases White Paper, Outlines Recommendations “to Power the Future of AAM”

NATS Ser­vices announced this week, the launch of its White Paper which out­lines rec­om­men­da­tions to assist the growth of the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) indus­try, fol­low­ing the suc­cess of Project AMEC (part of UKRI’s Future Flight Chal­lenge), reports a press release.

This Project brought togeth­er key indus­try part­ners to explore how AAM can be safe­ly inte­grat­ed into UK air­space. “Using advanced sim­u­la­tions and dig­i­tal twin tech­nol­o­gy,” explains the release, “NATS Ser­vices has val­i­dat­ed oper­a­tional con­cepts for eVTOLs and drones in con­trolled and uncon­trolled envi­ron­ments that mir­ror real-world con­di­tions, includ­ing with­in Lon­don’s con­gest­ed air­space.”

Mark Bals­don, NATS Ser­vices AMEC Project Lead and Head of New Air­space Users Accounts and Part­ner­ships, com­ment­ed, “Project AMEC has proven how we can safe­ly inte­grate AAM oper­a­tions into today’s air­space at scale. With a proven blue­print, oper­a­tional mod­el and deploy­able dig­i­tal sys­tems, NATS Ser­vices is equipped to enable real-world AAM oper­a­tions now.” 

He con­tin­ued, “Our solu­tion bridges today’s traf­fic man­age­ment sys­tems to accom­mo­date new types of users, ensur­ing safe­ty with­out sti­fling inno­va­tion. This isn’t just about fly­ing vehi­cles.” Adding, “It’s about cre­at­ing smarter, green­er trans­port net­works that spark region­al eco­nom­ic growth.”

These NATS find­ings have lead to the devel­op­ment of a Con­cepts of Oper­a­tions (CONOPs) and an array of dig­i­tal solu­tions designed to sup­port the future of AAM and inte­grat­ed traf­fic man­age­ment. They include the Mas­ter Con­trol Room inter­face, Air­space Man­ag­er, and ver­ti­port assess­ment tools, crit­i­cal enablers for the safe, scal­able inte­gra­tion of crewed and uncrewed air­craft into shared air­space.

Gareth Bowen, NATS Ser­vices New Air­space Users Solu­tions Con­sul­tant, remarked, “What we have achieved for both drones and eVTOLs, is inte­gra­tion – devel­op­ing the tech­ni­cal inter­faces with the tra­di­tion­al air traf­fic man­age­ment domain which are aligned with the air­space mod­erni­sa­tion strat­e­gy of the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty.”

A key inno­va­tion is the Air­space Man­ag­er role, which pro­vides the required sup­port to AAM oper­a­tors, allow­ing them to file flight plans that can be approved or amend­ed with­in min­utes. 

The release con­tin­ues, “Lever­ag­ing sophis­ti­cat­ed dig­i­tal mon­i­tor­ing and pre-flight decon­flic­tion, this capa­bil­i­ty ensures safe and seam­less dig­i­tal oper­a­tions with­out adding to the work­load of air traf­fic con­trollers. This capa­bil­i­ty also unlocks the poten­tial for region­al air­ports to evolve into mixed-use ver­ti­ports, cre­at­ing new rev­enue streams and enhanc­ing oper­a­tional flex­i­bil­i­ty.”

It con­tin­ues, “Sus­tain­abil­i­ty remains a core tenet of NATS Ser­vices’ vision for the future of avi­a­tion. Project AMEC’s val­i­da­tion using Ver­ti­cal Aerospace’s emis­sion-free VX4 air­craft offered a tan­gi­ble glimpse into the poten­tial for eco-friend­ly urban mobil­i­ty. Suc­cess­ful test flights con­duct­ed with­in sim­u­lat­ed Air Traf­fic Con­trol (ATC) envi­ron­ments have fur­ther val­i­dat­ed the real-world fea­si­bil­i­ty of NATS Ser­vices’ inte­grat­ed traf­fic man­age­ment tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions.”

Oth­er key find­ings high­light­ed by NATS include invest­ing and devel­op­ing infra­struc­ture to keep pace with the expand­ing trans­port net­work and estab­lish­ing ‘rules of the sky’ appro­pri­ate for a new age of dig­i­tal, low­er air­space traf­fic man­age­ment.

To learn more about Project AMEC and explore the rec­om­men­da­tions for the future of inte­grat­ed air­space man­age­ment, down­load the White Paper here.

For more infor­ma­tion

www.nats.aero 

(Images: NATS Ser­vices)

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