Urban air mobility – onwards and upwards

Even in the military domain, as cities remain critical battlespaces where wars are won and lost, drones have the potential to facilitate Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and the delivery of Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR). 

Yet while drones are set to become ubiquitous to tomorrow’s urban spaces, one central question persists: in such confined, vertical spaces, how will these systems navigate and, just as importantly, land safely? Leveraging its experience across both the unmanned systems and the Air Traffic Management (ATM) markets, Thales is working to develop vertical landing aids based on legacy technologies. 

Something old, something new…

UAM presents one key characteristic: verticality. In the absence of space to develop runways, the systems used to ensure efficient UAM must be capable of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL). Today, this effectively means that helicopters will continue to play an important role in UAM while new systems, such as VTOL aircraft, electrically propelled VTOL (eVTOL) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), progressively enter the air space. 

In this context, the impact of UAM on ATM will likely be twofold. First, landing aids will have to be adapted to facilitate VTOL operations. Thus far developed to provide short-range landing guidance based on a 3° descent, these aids will now have to also provide guidance for systems landing with a 10° descent. Second, because both existing (e.g., helicopters) and emerging (e.g., UAVs) technologies will navigate in tomorrow’s urban skies, landing aids should feature high levels of interoperability. This will ease the introduction of new technologies while limiting the impact of UAM on existing ones. 

… Something borrowed

Today the main landing system in use worldwide is the conventional Instrument Landing System (ILS). Fully standardised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), ILS ensures safe instrument landing in all weather conditions. 

“Over the years, there have been several attempts at finding alternatives to conventional ILS, including a system based on geolocalisation through satellite signals,” says Paolo Lunardi, Thales. This latest attempt, however, did not succeed yet to gather full support in landing systems within the ATM market due to satellite signals’ high vulnerability to natural (e.g., bad weather) and man-made (e.g., jamming, spoofing) interferences. 

Instead, leveraging decades of experience in the ATM market, Thales has chosen to focus on existing ILS technologies to introduce safe and interoperable landing aids in the emerging UAM market. “We believe that by combining existing technologies from different markets we can develop a new, Portable ILS (PILS),” Lunardi continues. Borrowing from other markets’ technologies, Thales seeks to reduce ILS footprint and create a portable system relevant for both airports and future landing platforms. Additionally, basing the new landing aids on legacy ILS technology ensures interoperability with both existing and emerging VTOL aircraft systems. 

Onwards and upwards

Driving these developments within Thales are a number of worldwide UAM initiatives, notably in Italy, where Thales’ navigation aids centre of excellence is located. In 2020, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) and the Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitization launched an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Roadmap that foresees two major milestones: intermediate testing demonstration for AAM operations during large visibility events by 2026, and large-scale commercial services by 2030.