Three of Uber Elevate Network’s six partners are using analytics to map out the cost of flying to work or sharing an air taxi over the total life cycle costs of aircraft, according to a press release.
Bell Helicopter, Karem Aircraft and Jaunt Air Mobility are working with PRICE Systems, a cost estimation software and research company, to design for cost per flight hour while taking account of performance factors such as safety, noise, reliability, durability and maintainability.
Cost models from PRICE are backed by a team of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) solution architects and researchers led by Nate Sirirojvisuth, PhD. The team is comprised of former cost engineers at Raytheon SAS, Northrop Grumman, and other aerospace and aviation companies.
“Affordability is key for urban air mobility, which makes accurate, unbiased cost estimates as essential as safety analysis and performance calculations,” said Ryan Doss, Head of Product & Business at Karem Aircraft. “PRICE’s tool addresses this need and is versatile enough to use throughout the development process.”
Kaydon Stanzione, CEO at Jaunt Air Mobility called PRICE Systems “the honest broker for uncovering affordable flights for eVTOL concepts.”
Uber is working towards the launch of Uber Air, the aerial ridesharing service slated to connect suburbs and cities by 2023 and later linking cities to cities. It will be serviced by fleets of small, eVTOL aircraft with an urban air mobility (UAM) supply chain known as Uber Elevate Network.
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