Skydrive and Other Osaka Partners Consider Rooftop eVTOL Landing Site Conversions

Osa­ka author­i­ties, Sky­Drive, Osa­ka Metro, Kan­sai Elec­tric Pow­er and oth­er part­ners have launched a fea­si­bil­i­ty study into con­vert­ing exist­ing rooftop emer­gency land­ing sites in Osa­ka City into ver­ti­ports for elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing (eVTOL) air­craft.

The project is being con­duct­ed under Japan’s Cab­i­net Office Super City Ini­tia­tive and fol­lows col­lab­o­ra­tion between Sky­Drive and Osa­ka Metro around eVTOL demon­stra­tions dur­ing Expo 2025 Osa­ka. The part­ners are work­ing towards a poten­tial com­mer­cial eVTOL ser­vice in Osa­ka Pre­fec­ture and Osa­ka City from around 2028.

The study will assess whether some of Osaka’s exist­ing rooftop emer­gency land­ing sites can be used as alter­na­tive land­ing facil­i­ties for eVTOL oper­a­tions. Osa­ka City has 146 such sites, pri­mar­i­ly locat­ed on build­ings more than 100 metres tall. The sites were estab­lished for dis­as­ter response and are equipped with fea­tures includ­ing rein­forced floor­ing, fire sup­pres­sion sys­tems and light­ing.

Rather than build­ing new ver­ti­ports in dense­ly devel­oped areas, the project will exam­ine whether this exist­ing infra­struc­ture can pro­vide addi­tion­al land­ing options for future eVTOL ser­vices. The sites would pri­mar­i­ly serve as alter­nate ver­ti­ports, includ­ing for sit­u­a­tions where an air­craft can­not reach its planned des­ti­na­tion.

The fea­si­bil­i­ty study will exam­ine sev­er­al tech­ni­cal and oper­a­tional fac­tors. These include sur­round­ing air­space, obsta­cle clear­ance, build­ing-induced wind con­di­tions and noise dur­ing take-off, land­ing and flight. The project will also assess rooftop struc­tur­al capac­i­ty and pas­sen­ger move­ment require­ments dur­ing diver­sions.

The part­ners will exam­ine the instal­la­tion of charg­ing infra­struc­ture and the upgrades that may be required for elec­tri­cal receiv­ing and trans­for­ma­tion equip­ment. Costs asso­ci­at­ed with con­vert­ing indi­vid­ual sites will also be assessed.

Anoth­er focus will be emer­gency pro­ce­dures and the coex­is­tence of com­mer­cial eVTOL oper­a­tions with the orig­i­nal dis­as­ter-response role of the rooftop land­ing sites. Sky­Drive and its part­ners plan to work with organ­i­sa­tions includ­ing the Osa­ka Munic­i­pal Fire Depart­ment on oper­a­tional sce­nar­ios and safe­ty pro­ce­dures.

Osa­ka Metro is lead­ing the project and will coor­di­nate the facil­i­ties being assessed and dis­cus­sions with stake­hold­ers. Sky­Drive will devel­op the sur­vey method­ol­o­gy and oper­a­tional require­ments, while Kan­sai Elec­tric Pow­er will assess exist­ing elec­tri­cal equip­ment and charg­ing require­ments. Chodai will sup­port tech­ni­cal analy­sis of obsta­cle lim­i­ta­tion sur­faces, with the Air­port Envi­ron­ment Improve­ment Foun­da­tion assess­ing noise-relat­ed fac­tors.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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