Spain’s Palma de Mallorca Airport hosted today a demonstration to show how vertiport operations can be safely integrated within into the existing airspace, exploring the potential of IAM (Innovative Air Mobility) systems and validating that they are safe and sustainable to respond to the urban transport needs of the future, according to a communication from ENAIRE.
“In this context, Aena, as host of the project, together with the rest of the reference entities that are part of it, such as ENAIRE, Ineco, Indra, CRIDA, Unifly, Pipistrel, and Bluenest by Globalvia, have worked on the design of a platform that allows managing the vertiport resources within the U-space environment, allowing the drone pilot to manage its operation with the rest of the air traffic in a safe manner,” said the press release. “The role of the vertiport manager is thus included in the U-space ecosystem To make this project a reality, a close relationship has also been established with those responsible for the Health and Mobility Departments of the Balearic Government, as well as with the National Transplant Organization (ONT) and the 061-emergency service.
“The demonstration consisted of a real flight with an electric drone (eVTOL) from Bluenest by Globalvia, which took off from Palma de Mallorca Airport and flew to the Son Albertí aerodrome, transporting biological health samples. The flight traveled more than 33 kilometers in 21 minutes, and upon arrival, the aircraft was received by medical personnel from 061, recreating a real emergency medical logistics scenario.
“The operation has required complex coordination between the operators, managers of the digital systems of the Indra’s vertiport and U-space environment, the air traffic control carried out by ENAIRE for manned aviation and the drone operator, Bluenest by Globalvia.
The flight planning has been enabled by the U-space Service Provider (USSP) platform, supplied by Unifly, with ENAIRE as the national entity designated as the Single Information Provider in the U-space ecosystem (CISP), and which has been developed by Indra, together with Aena and EUROCONTROL as the project coordinator.
“This project, in addition to achieving technical and innovative objectives, aims to provide added value to society in the future by evaluating the viability of unmanned aircraft for various potential uses, including the transport of biological and sanitary materials between islands. This capacity would optimize medical logistics, reduce critical response times, and enable urgent transport of blood or organs between hospitals in the Balearic Islands.
The demonstration was part of the EUREKA SESAR 3 research programme which bring together a large consortium of 35 European entities, led by EUROCONTROL, to define how vertiports of the future should operate and be integrated into the current airspace. Among its main objectives, EUREKA develops three essential solutions so that vertiports and eVTOL aircraft can operate safely and efficiently in urban and airport environments: arrival and departure management (which defines safe routes and trajectories to and from vertiports and which includes the management of contingencies and emergencies in the event of unforeseen situations); vertiport collaborative traffic management (VCTM) (which optimizes resource availability and schedule allocation) and network, capacity, and operations management, to efficiently coordinate multiple vertiports within the same urban or airport environment.
For more information
https://www.sesarju.eu/projects/EUREKA
(Image: EUREKA)
