We’re proud to announce that the UK CAA Innovation Hub has published the results from Phase 1 of our Future Air Mobility Regulatory Sandbox project. Titled, CAP2272 Key Considerations for Airspace Integration within an Urban Air Mobility Landscape, this publication highlights key regulatory issues that need to be addressed to enable safe, efficient, and scalable zero-emission UAM operations.

For the Sandbox Project, we identified key airspace integration challenges by focusing on a use case where eVTOL flights carry passengers between Heathrow Airport and London City Airport with stops in between. The challenges fell broadly into three main areas:

• Maintaining high-tempo UAM operations;
• Integrating low-level flights into congested airspace;
• Accommodating the unique performance capabilities of eVTOL aircraft.

This work represents an important milestone. The results will inform future efforts by innovators, governments, and communities to plan for the safe launch and growth of zero-emission UAM in the low-level airspace. Our soon-to-be-released CONOPS emphasizes proposed approaches to safely overcoming these regulatory challenges and gaps. As we approach the completion of the CONOPs, we are continuing to work closely with the CAA and other stakeholders to receive feedback and look forward to sharing it with the broader community once completed.