The German research centre DLR has started work on the Vertiport Research Infrastructure for Innovation Exploration and Demonstration (VERTIFIED) project, as a next step towards the safe introduction of air taxis and the necessary infrastructure in urban and regional areas.
“As take-off and landing points for air taxis, vertiports represent the central link between air and ground and therefore passenger transportation,” says the agency. “ Research is needed to ensure that they can be integrated into today’s multimodal transportation system in the future and that air taxis can go into commercial operation in a few years. The DLR project VERTIFIED deals with the conceptual development, construction and validation of vertiports. The focus is on two areas of application: vertiports in urban areas and vertiports at airports. Various DLR institutes as well as external partners are involved in the project in order to investigate the research questions on vertiports holistically. The project is being led by the Institute of Flight Guidance and will run for four years, from July 2024 to June 2028.
“In VERTIFIED, a regular exchange takes place between the DLR institutes, but also with relevant stakeholders from industry, science and society, in order to gather and take into account further views and perspectives.
“In VERTIFIED, the researchers will work out the necessary vertiport concepts and develop key components, including the U-Space services. The expertise of cooperation partners can also be used in this context.
“At the National Test Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (DLR site at Magdeburg-Cochstedt Airport), two real technology demonstrators for vertiports will be created as part of VERTIFIED. The infrastructure will be built on a 1:1 scale so that these vertiport prototypes can be used for flight tests under realistic conditions. Thanks to the modular and flexible design, various scenarios can be tested on these vertiports in order to provide realistic answers to different research questions.
“This real-life laboratory is intended to deliver comprehensive results and findings to pave the way for the commercial use of Innovative Air Mobility (IAM). In future, the flexible demonstrators will be available both internally at DLR and to external stakeholders and partners for the validation and demonstration of new concepts and technologies at and in the vicinity of vertiports.”
As part of the programme, DLR will carry out flight tests of its EVO X8 system of cabin mock-ups in scaled UAM flight demonstrations. Flight tests for the EVO X8 and mini air taxi cabins will take place at the DLR sites Nationales Erprobungszentrum für Unbemannte Luftfahrtsysteme in Cochstedt and in the Drone Cage in Braunschweig.
For more information
https://www.dlr.de/en/fl/research-transfer/projects/vertified