Search for: All records

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) presents an emerging alternative to traditional car driving for commuting in metropolitan areas. However, its feasibility has not been thoroughly studied nor well understood at the operational level. Given that AAM has not been in place, this study explores the economic, energy, and environmental feasibility of AAM for commuting at an early stage of AAM deployment. We propose a time expanded network model to characterize the dynamics of eVTOL operations between a vertiport pair in different states: in-service flying, relocation flying, charging, and parking, while respecting various operational and commuter time window constraints. By jointly considering eVTOL flying with vertiport access and egress and using real-world data, we demonstrate an application of the model in the Chicago metropolitan area in the US. Different vertiport pairs and eVTOL aircraft models are investigated. We find substantial travel time saving if commuting by AAM. While vehicle operating cost will be higher using eVTOLs than using auto, the generalized travel cost will be less for commuters. On the other hand, with current eVTOL power requirement, the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of AAM will be greater than those of auto driving, with an important contributor being the significance presence of empty flights relocation. These findings, along with sensitivity analysis, shed light on future eVTOL development to enhance the competitiveness of AAM as a viable option for commuting. 

Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) are gaining growing interest recently. However, limited attention has been paid to the prospect of using eVTOLs for package delivery. To fill this void, this paper explores the attractiveness of eVTOL-based package delivery in terms of cost, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. Given that eVTOLs cannot take off/land at customer doorsteps, a two-leg system design is proposed and formulated as an optimization model. To implement the model, we consider multiple plausible eVTOL and ground vehicle types, their cost economics, and energy use and CO2 emission characteristics. Applying the model in the Chicago metro region, we find that the attractiveness of eVTOL-based package delivery depends critically on the eVTOL and ground vehicle types. With an appropriate eVTOL-ground vehicle combination, eVTOL-based delivery can be attractive compared to van-only delivery in terms of total shipping cost, but not necessarily so from the energy and mission perspectives. This highlights the need for future R&D to further enhance the energy efficiency of eVTOLs. When designing eVTOL-based package delivery systems, the importance to account for the potential interactions between eVTOL traffic and commercial air traffic should also be recognized.