Urban-Air Port starts construction of its Air One infrastructure hub ahead of April launch event in Coventry

Urban-Air Port has offi­cial­ly begun the con­struc­tion of Air One, its ground­break­ing infra­struc­ture for advanced air mobil­i­ty ahead of host­ing a launch event in Coven­try on April 25th.

Air One is the world’s first ful­ly-oper­a­tional hub for eVTOL air­craft which has been designed to show­case how sus­tain­able urban air mobil­i­ty can reduce con­ges­tion, cut air pol­lu­tion and decar­bonise trans­port while pro­vid­ing seam­less pas­sen­ger jour­neys and deliv­er­ies. 

From April 28th to 15th May, Air One will be open to the pub­lic, with tours pro­vid­ed by the Urban-Air Port team.

Ricky Sand­hu, Founder & Exec­u­tive Chair­man of urban-Air Port, said: “We are absolute­ly thrilled to get Urban-Air Port’s Air One on site – this marks a unique and trans­for­ma­tive moment where the UK posi­tions itself as the world’s lead­ing play­er in advanced air mobil­i­ty.

“Our tech­nol­o­gy will enable Coven­try and oth­er cities around the coun­try and the world to decar­bonise by enabling safe adop­tion of clean­er mobil­i­ty solu­tions. We are grate­ful to our part­ners, investors and the UK Gov­ern­ment for adopt­ing our vision and now mak­ing advanced air mobil­i­ty a viable and sus­tain­able real­i­ty.”

Approach­ing one week into con­struc­tion, the UAP team were joined by Coun­cil­lor Jim O’Boyle – Cab­i­net mem­ber for jobs, regen­er­a­tion and cli­mate change.

Oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Coven­try City Coun­cil include Col­in Knight – Direc­tor, Trans­porta­tion and High­ways; John Sed­don – Head of Trans­port and Inno­va­tion; and Sunil Bud­hdeo – Trans­port Inno­va­tion Man­ag­er, togeth­er with employ­ees from Prin­ci­pal Con­trac­tor Sir Robert McAlpine (SRM).

Also present were Kevin Vin­cent and Pro­fes­sor Paul Her­riotts from Coven­try University’s Nation­al Trans­port Design Cen­tre.

Coun­cil­lor Boyle said: “This is yet anoth­er way that Coven­try is lead­ing the way when it comes to trans­port inno­va­tion. We are right at the front of the green indus­tri­al rev­o­lu­tion and this is a bril­liant world first.

“We’re pleased to be work­ing with our part­ners at Urban-Air Port to show­case this break­through sys­tem, which in the near future could help to boost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in our towns and cities as well as sup­port­ing cli­mate change efforts by tak­ing vehi­cles off the roads.

“One of the best things about Air One is that local schools will be able to vis­it, look round, and be inspired for what they can achieve.”

Urban-Air Port® chose Coven­try for the first site due to its impor­tant loca­tion in the heart of the UK and because it is a his­toric hub for the auto­mo­bile and aero­space indus­try, with a pool of peo­ple and skills that can sup­port the R&D and advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing indus­tries of the future.

Coven­try University’s Nation­al Trans­port Design Cen­tre is focus­ing on under­stand­ing the cus­tomer jour­ney and mak­ing the urban air­port acces­si­ble to all, easy to nav­i­gate and a plea­sure to use. They are also using immer­sive Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty to allow peo­ple to expe­ri­ence and con­tribute to the design of this inno­v­a­tive trans­port sys­tem of the future.

Pro­fes­sor Stew­art Bir­rell, Pro­fes­sor of Human Fac­tors for Future Trans­port at Coven­try University’s Nation­al Trans­port Design Cen­tre, added: “We are delight­ed to be team­ing up with Urban-Air Port and Coven­try City Coun­cil to help facil­i­tate this huge­ly excit­ing and inno­v­a­tive future trans­port project.

“The chance to utilise our exper­tise and research knowl­edge in user-cen­tred design to help shape this for­ward-think­ing devel­op­ment is one we have rel­ished and the antic­i­pa­tion and excite­ment will now con­tin­ue to grow as we watch how the site pro­gress­es and comes to life in the com­ing weeks.”

Urban-Air Port Lim­it­ed is devel­op­ing ful­ly autonomous zero-emis­sion ground infra­struc­ture for new forms of sus­tain­able urban air trans­port such as air taxis and autonomous deliv­ery drones. Its mis­sion is to remove the largest sin­gle con­straint to sus­tain­able air mobil­i­ty – ground infra­struc­ture – In order to cre­ate a zero-emis­sion-mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem that will sig­nif­i­cant­ly cut con­ges­tion and air pol­lu­tion from pas­sen­ger and car­go trans­port.

The com­pa­ny plans to deliv­er more than 200 ver­ti­ports across the world in the next five years and is backed by major inter­na­tion­al part­ners, includ­ing Super­nal.

The Air One site is posi­tioned cen­tral­ly with­in an area that is home to approx. 400,000 peo­ple liv­ing and work­ing. With prox­im­i­ty to Coven­try train sta­tion and inter­modal trans­port links, it has been iden­ti­fied as a per­fect test bed loca­tion for this new form of tech­nol­o­gy.