Industry experts have warned that public acceptance of advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft is vital for driving the sector forward.
Last week at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Pilotess Summit in London, leaders in the AAM sector outlined that having the general public onside will prove vital for ensuring a new era of aviation can takeoff.
The advanced air mobility sector includes the development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Industry leaders see an ‘integrated’ vision of these aircraft, from air charter and goods transportation to consumers ordering cappuccinos to their front doors.
But they warned at the Pilotless Summit that more must be done to convince the public of the benefits of these aircraft – otherwise the sector faces being grounded.
Increasing public acceptance, though, remains a significant barrier to getting AAM aircraft in the air, speakers said.
According to Julie Garland, CEO of Avtrain: “We live in a bubble and we think everybody outside the bubble understands exactly what’s going on inside it.
“And we quite happily carry on unaware of the actual [level of] societal acceptance. Most people have no idea what an eVTOL is.
“If you walk out onto the street and asked somebody what an eVTOL is, they wouldn’t be able to tell you.
“We have this presumption that everybody knows what we’re talking about and they don’t.”
Garland added that the industry cannot counter public opposition until people are better informed about what advanced air mobility is.
But how can the AAM sector work to ensure greater public awareness and win the “social license” to operate eVTOL aircraft?
Max Schek, a UAS representative for the European Cockpit Association, highlighted that the public generally knows very little about aviation.
Speaking at the Pilotless Summit, he said: “50 per cent of passengers currently aren’t even aware there’s more than one pilot on a commercial aircraft today. When I heard that I thought ‘this can’t be true.'”
The conference consensus was that ‘use cases’ – or case studies – would put the sector in the best position possible to boost public support.
According to James Bircumshaw, head of acquisitions and partnerships at Skyports, “medical use cases win hearts and minds” – and companies today are already integrating AAM into the medical sphere.
The Morecambe Bay Medical Shuttle programme in the UK is working with two NHS trusts in Lancashire to transport pathology samples from primary care (local doctors’ surgeries) to secondary care (hospitals) for testing.
Dr Chris Crocker, founder of Digital & Future Technologies, one of the partners in the programme, believes uses cases like this will progress the cause of the AAM sector because the public will see the benefit of faster turnarounds for their medical results where transported by air rather than road.
But the sector must go further to publicise as well as produce use cases, said Sunil Budhdeo, transport innovation manager for Coventry City Council.
In April 2022, Coventry opened Air-One, the world’s first vertiport. Showing it to the public, he explained, generated positive feedback.
“When we opened [the vertiport] the public perception when they saw it from the outside was they were saying ‘it’s just a structure’.
“But when they came in and they were walked and talked through the journey of what the vertiport would do, 70-year-olds said ‘we’re not going to be able to benefit from this, but we can see the benefit for our grandchildren’.”