US National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) Ames research Center ran a series of simulated eVTOL flights in collaboration with Uber Elevate over Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas in October 2019. Hundreds of eVTOL flights were simulated and different scenarios evaluated. NASA and Uber each submitted operations for a set of flights as part of the test, with Uber remotely connecting from its lab to the airspace management system developed by the NASA UAM team to make the simulation possible, according to eVTOL newsletter.
The engineering evaluation, called X2, was part of the NASA Air Traffic Management Exploration (ATM-X) Urban Air Mobility (UAM) project to research needs for new entrants into the National Airspace System (NAS). NASA demonstrated use cases including live connection to Uber’s simulation facilities and virtual flights. NASA plans to carry out further simulations. Uber has announced plans to conduct demonstration flights in Dallas in 2020, and to begin aerial ridesharing services from 2023.
(Image: Uber Elevate)
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