Airside operations
With their vast footprint and plethora of towers, airports have remained largely unchanged for decades. But with the rise of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), traditional aviation infrastructure is changing fast. Andrea Valentino talks to Ankit Dass, CTO at Skyports, as well as to German company Volocopter, to understand how new technology is boosting the popularity of eVTOLs, and what this means for both passengers and freight.
First port of call T
he 1950s were perhaps the most optimistic time in history. With the Nazis defeated, the Soviets restrained, and household income soaring from
New York to Frankfurt, writers and intellectuals let their imaginations fly free. And though fantastical ideas of the future permeated everywhere, from human- made planets to nuclear-powered toilets, nowhere was this influence stronger than in the field of aviation. Early in the decade, for instance, Popular Mechanics magazine envisaged a world where suburbanites would all own a personal helicopter, landing on their front lawns every evening like a Cadillac. By 1957, the same publication announced the imminent arrival of ‘flying fan vehicles’, available in four-door and truck models and capable of reaching speeds of 50mph. Whether you have tiptoed barefoot along sticky airport carpets, or stood through a crotch-level interrogation by an over-keen police dog, it is clear that the cheery tomorrow promised in those post-war years has failed to materialise. Though statistics are generally scarce, one 2017 survey found that 47% of Americans
thought airport hassles had become worse over the preceding five years. Yet, amid a thoroughgoing revolution in how aircraft are envisaged and built – and broad shifts in how officials think about the aviation industry – the future may soon start looking rather brighter. Flying fan sedans are still not on the menu but, buoyed by new technology, companies are dramatically boosting the prospects of so-called ‘electric vertical take-off and landing’ (eVTOL) vehicles. Taking helicopters and making them more efficient and sustainable, these machines could eventually be a fixture of skylines the world over. Not, of course, that we should expect traffic jams in the sky over Big Ben anytime soon. Between technical challenges and regulatory hurdles, there is plenty more for eVTOL evangelists to reflect on. The same goes for infrastructure on the ground. After all, if these machines hope to break traditional aviation’s monopoly on air travel, let alone compete with well- established public transport systems, they obviously need check-in and boarding at new ‘vertiports’ to be
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Future Airport /
www.futureairport.com
Volocopter
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