The latest news about the bankruptcy filing of Lilium and Volocopter and the decision of Airbus not to continue with its CityAirbus NextGen program, may make us wonder if the dream of innovative aerial mobility is really realistic.

While it is true that the level of investment required to design and certify so-called “air cabs” is tremendously high (Joby alone has managed to attract $2.5 billion and Lilium spent $1.4 billion before declaring bankruptcy), it is also true that innovative air mobility is not limited to “air cabs” or transporting people using new eVTOL (electrical Vertical Taking-Off and Landing) aircraft configurations. Freight transport and mobility in rural areas present a multitude of opportunities that also have lower entry barriers, as they are operations with lower operational risk, and therefore require a lower level of investment.

In a country like Spain, where 79% of the municipalities concentrate around 10% of the population, there is a great need to develop solutions to improve the services available to the population living in these areas. UAS, or commonly called drones, have the advantage of connecting remote areas with a very low investment in infrastructure, quickly and safely. This aspect is fundamental when offering services that make use of UAS related to emergencies and transport of goods.

Moreover, we do not only think of small drones, UAS are appearing in the market with a large carrying capacity, such as Pipistrel’s NUUVA 300 that can carry 300Kg at a distance of 300Km. This type of aircraft would be of great help to improve the connectivity of the so-called empty Spain in a flexible way, easily adapting to the demand at any time, and with a minimum investment in infrastructure.

This minimum necessary infrastructure should focus on two key aspects: vertipuertos and CNS systems. Vertiports are landing and take-off areas specially designed for this new type of VTOL aircraft. In fact, Spain has recently published the White Paper on Vertiports developed by the SIAM cluster (to which CATEC belongs), which lays the foundations for the development of these essential infrastructures for innovative air mobility.

On the other hand, in relation to CNS systems, it is necessary to provide navigation, communications and surveillance services to this new type of operations whose objective is to be highly automated. The application of existing technologies and systems will be key to reducing investment costs and making the development of new innovative air mobility services in empty Spain more viable. For example, the use of new Galileo or satellite communications services are key enabling technologies for this new type of operations.

Returning to the initial question, is innovative air mobility still viable, the answer is YES, although in both the air mobility and UAS sectors it is important to go step by step, and although European regulations are among the most advanced in the world and cover high-risk operations, the reality is that there is still a lot of work to be done to make them scalable services.

So why not start with lower risk environments that allow us to quickly deploy solutions, gain experience and position Spain as a leading country in the development of UAS technologies applied to real services.