Amu-Led, a newly started demonstration project, aims to trial air mobility services over the next two years in four cities across Europe.

This could see air taxis, cargo delivery drones or unmanned systems for emergencies with the advent of urban air mobility (UAM).

The project is part of Sesar (Single European Sky ATM Research), a collaborative project to overhaul European airspace and its air traffic management.

Funded within the framework of Horizon 2020, the project is one of the largest demonstrations of mobility services with air vehicles in urban environments to date. Four venues have been chosen in three countries: Santiago de Compostela in Spain; Cranfield in the UK; and Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The exercises planned within Amu-Led include more than 100 flight hours combining different unmanned aerial systems and considering various scenarios, use cases and applications. These will consist of air taxi operations, cargo transport, delivery of goods and medical equipment, inspection of infrastructures, police surveillance, and emergency services support.

Through real tests and simulations, the project will explore and demonstrate how to decongest roads, improve transportation of people and goods, reduce travel times, increase flexibility, cut pollution, and reduce traffic accidents.

Thanks to data obtained from the different tests, Amu-Led is expected to provide information to regulatory authorities, such as the EASA. Ultimately the goal is to help support the regulatory framework in the urban air mobility field.

Coordinated by Everis, the consortium is made up of a group of prominent actors within the sector: Airbus, AirHub, Altitude Angel, Anra Technologies, Boeing Research & Technology, Fada-Catec, Cranfield University, EHang, Enaire, Gemeente, Ineco, ITG, Jeppesen, NLR, Space53 and Tecnalia. The multi-disciplinary team of professionals includes experts in air traffic, simulation and drone operations, research technology centres, legislators, and experts in tests and demonstrators.

Amu-Led is integral to the work of the Sesar Joint Undertaking on the digital transformation of air traffic management in support of the European Commission’s initiative for safe and secure drone operations, otherwise known as U-Space.