#1. What are these pictures all about?
#2. You’re looking at “imaginary art” drawn by people from the past.
#3. It was a depiction of the future they dreamt of at the time.
#4. But this could also soon become a part of our reality.
#5. Urban Air Mobility, or UAM, is an air transport that moves passengers and cargo within urban spaces.
#6. Why do we want to seek out city skyways?
#7. The urban population across the world grew from 29.6% in 1950 by around twofold to 56.2% in 2020.
#8. In 2050, 68.4% of population is expected to live in cities.
#9. As city population becomes denser, traffic becomes congested.
#10. Rush-hour traffic increases both transportation time and cost for logistics.
#11. Not to mention carbon dioxide, the main cause of climate change.
#12. Around 20% of CO2 emissions are generated from transport.
#13. That’s why some people propose Urban Air Mobility as a solution, with the following advantageous characteristics.
#14. First, low noise levels.
#15. Because UAM vehicles fly between 300 to 600 meters above the ground, below the altitude of typical planes, the noise must be minimal.
#16. Thus, the noise level of UAMs is only about 20% of a helicopter’s.
#17. Second, it must be able to land and take off vertically.
#18. UAMs must occupy minimal space in cities, where constructing airstrips is not easily feasible.
#19. Third, running on electric power, UAMs provide sustainable transportation.
#20. This UAM will be piloted at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
#21. You can travel from Charles de Gaulle Airport to downtown Paris in ten minutes, a distance that would otherwise take forty-five minutes to an hour by car or train.
#22. UAMs can be used in a variety of fields in addition to passenger transport.
#23. They can be used for public service, such as reconnaissance missions for monitoring forest fires, and transporting emergency patients from dangerous places to medical institutions.
#24. Then what about the UAM vehicles we fly on?
#25. The outward design is calibrated to the vertical take-off and landing requirement.
#26. Currently, there are three major types of rotor systems:
#27. The tiltrotor can take off and land like a helicopter, and when the rotor blades shift forward in the air, it can rapidly cover long distances like an aircraft.
#28. It has the advantage of flying at high speed and long distances, but the technical barriers are significant.
#29. A multirotor UAM comprises multiple fixed vertical rotors and looks similar to drones that are commonly seen today.
#30. Its advantage is the relatively low technical barrier that makes it favorable for mass production.
#31. “Lift & Cruise” is a hybrid of the tiltrotor and multirotor systems.
#32. Featuring a separate take-off rotor and a propulsion rotor for forward movement, the platform is driven by the power of its vertically mounted rotor, and when it reaches a certain altitude, it flies with a horizontal rotor.
#33. The global UAM market is expected to grow rapidly from 2.6 billion dollars in 2022 to 28.3 billion in 2030.
#34. Will we finally see a dream of humanity fulfilled by UAM?