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Abstract The concept of Advanced Air Mobility involves utilizing cutting-edge transportation platforms to transport passengers and cargo efficiently over short distances in urban and suburban areas. However, using simplified atmospheric models for aircraft simulations can prove insufficient for modeling large disturbances impacting low-altitude flight regimes. Due to the complexities of operating in urban environments, realistic wind modeling is necessary to ensure trajectory planning and control design can maintain high levels of safety. In this study, we simulate the dynamic response of a representative advanced air mobility platform operating in wing-borne flight through an urban wind field generated using Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and a wind field created using reduced-order models based on full-order computational solutions. Our findings show that the longitudinal response of the aircraft was not greatly affected by the fidelity of the LES models or if the spatial variation was considered while evaluating the full-order wind model. This is encouraging as it indicates that the full LES generation of the wind field may not be necessary, which decreases the complexity and time needed in this analysis. Differences are present when comparing the lateral response, owing to the differences in the asymmetric loading of the planform in the full and reduced order models. These differences seen in the lateral responses are expected to increase for planforms with smaller wing loadings, which could pose challenges. Additionally, the response of the aircraft to the mean wind field, the temporal average of the full order model, was misrepresentative in the longitudinal response and greatly under-predicted control surface activity, particularly in the lateral response. 

Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) platforms are poised to begin high-density operations in urban areas nationwide. This new category of aviation platforms spans a broad range of sizes, from small package delivery drones to passenger-carrying vehicles. Unlike traditional aircraft, AAM vehicles operate within the urban boundary layer, where large structures, such as buildings, interrupt the flow. This study examines the response of a package delivery drone, a general aviation aircraft, and a passenger-carrying urban air mobility aircraft through an urban wind field generated using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). Since it is burdensome to simulate flight dynamics in real-time using the full-order solution, reduced-order wind models are created. Comparing trajectories for each aircraft platform using full-order or reduced-order solutions reveals little difference; reduced-order wind representations appear sufficient to replicate trajectories as long as the spatiotemporal wind field is represented. However, examining control usage statistics and time histories creates a stark difference between the wind fields, especially for the lower wing-loading package delivery drone where control saturation was encountered. The control saturation occurrences were inconsistent across the full-order and reduced-order winds, advising caution when using reduced-order models for lightly wing-loaded aircraft. The results presented demonstrate the effectiveness of using a simulation environment to evaluate reduced-order models by directly comparing their trajectories and control activity metrics with the full-order model. This evaluation provides designers valuable insights for making informed decisions for disturbance rejection systems. Additionally, the results indicate that using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solutions to represent urban wind fields is inappropriate. It was observed that the mean wind field trajectories fall outside the 95% confidence intervals, a finding consistent with the authors’ previous research.