Concept to ConOps: Building the foundations for the UK’s Advanced Air Mobility future

After two years, AMEC – one of the UKRI Future Flight 3 initiatives designed to demonstrate the feasibility of UK Advanced Air Mobility (AMM) – has come to a close.

For NATS, AMEC has directly helped inform the development of our Concepts of Operation (CONOPs), enabling us to understand how we would integrate a large number of eVTOLs – and other new airspace users – into UK airspace.

That has included the development of a suite of digital tools and solutions designed to support the future of AAM and deliver true integrated traffic management at scale.

These solutions are designed to bridge the gap between today’s traffic management ecosystem and one that can also accommodate new types of users, ensuring safety without stifling innovation. This isn’t just about flying vehicles; it’s about creating smarter, greener digitalised transport networks that can spark regional and national economic growth.

In our white paper, ‘Recommendations to enable growth of the advanced air mobility sector,’ we explore the next steps that need to be taken, including the creation of new ‘rules of the sky’ appropriate for a new age of digital, and the need for effective lower airspace traffic management.

The success of AMEC – from concept to flight – has been down to the proactive collaboration between each of the consortium members, and the support of UK Research and Innovation. Working together has given each of us a more robust and rounded consideration of the entire aviation ecosystem, which in turn will ensure that the solutions we’re developing are future fit and offer longevity on which to build upon.

Just this week, Skyports has achieved operational completion of its vertiport at Bicester Motion, Oxfordshire, one of the UK’s first testing grounds and hubs for eVTOL flights. And last month, Vertical Aerospace achieved the first-ever piloted wingborne flight of a winged eVTOL aircraft in European open airspace.

So now we pause and celebrate the contributions of all our partners in this project.  Tomorrow, we can look forward to overcoming the next challenges and achieving the next milestones.

Explore the recommendations for the future of integrated airspace management in our white paper.

The AMEC consortium members are Vertical Aerospace, Virgin Atlantic, AtkinsRéalis, Skyports, NATS, Connected Places Catapult, Cranfield University and WMG – University of Warwick, Bristol Airport, London City Airport and Heathrow Airport.