Transportation Puzzle - Pills And People
The Dawn of Urban Air Mobility - Shaping a Nimble Future
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Sadly, the (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - UAV) industry’s efforts to weaken airspace rights laws to make way for commercial drones have stalled the development of private airspace-sharing systems - an alternative approach.. could finally unleash commercial drone services across the country. - Troy A. Rule, Professor of Law and Joseph M. Feller Memorial Chair Arizona State University
Pharmacy In The Sky
Drones that deliver medicine and medical items are a wonderful use case for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In College Station, Texas customers are now eligible for aerial deliveries of more than 500 medications for common ailments such as the flu, asthma, and pneumonia through Amazon’s drone program.
Texas has positioned itself as a hub for drone delivery experimentation. Interestingly Texas is a state which has a strong stance on individual property rights too. There are many private property owners with physical infrastructure who have recently started to place their low-altitude airspace into the ecosystem to gain passive rental income from air space use.
In a parallel development, Alphabet's Wing has initiated its drone delivery services in the Dallas–Fort Worth region in a partnership with the retailer Walmart.
The landscape of drone deliveries in the United States continues to evolve. Amazon is also trying to make international inroads in 2024. They plan the expansion of drone deliveries to the U.K. and Italy. Amazon intends to integrate the Prime Air program within its delivery network. This integration will see drones operating from select same-day delivery sites.
Amazon's MK30 drone deployment was initially unveiled in November 2022. This model doubles of the range compared to its predecessors and exhibits heightened resilience to higher and lower temperature extremes.
Drones are a welcome addition to the transportation system, without permission from private property owners’ any economic benefit derived from these activities is not only short-lived but also the result of trespass. Amazon thankfully don’t drive their trucks onto your front yards to deliver to your neighbour and the ownership of the low-altitude skies is no different to the ownership structure of front yards.
Flying Cars - The Next Steps
Supernal, Hyundai's Flying Vehicle Company and Korean Air have joined forces to advance eVTOL technology. They'll share technical data, engage in workshops, and help develop systems for eVTOL operations. This partnership aligns with Hyundai's broader collaborations, which include an agreement with Honeywell to create ground control stations for pilotless eVTOL test flights.
The Honeywell ground control station allows remote testing of AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) vehicles. Ground-based pilots can monitor and command the aircraft's operations beyond their line of sight, all while accessing real-time data. Korean Air will provide market insights and AAM aircraft specifications based on their data, aiding Supernal's product and market development.
Supernal recently opened a research and development facility in Fremont, California, focusing on battery technology for electric aerial vehicles (EAV). This facility marks the third opened this year, following an engineering headquarters in Irvine, California, and a policy and commercial hub in Washington, They're also collaborating with Microsoft and BAE Systems on various aspects of their EAVs.
With Whitaker, the Supernal COO being nominated as the Federal Administration Aviation (FAA) administrator it will likely lead to interesting developments, if he is confirmed, in the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) industry.
Bailout Dividends
Delta Air Lines, (who received a $5.4 Billion government bailout not too long ago in addition to over $15 Billion in the preceding 20 years) and Joby Aviation are poised to
introduce electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) air taxi services to terminals at key airports in New York and Los Angeles developing existing physical infrastructure. These "vertiports" will cater to travellers seeking an alternative to navigating the roadways en route to the airport from some undefined take-off location.
The eVTOL industry is advancing with companies such as Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, and Beta Technologies edging closer to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification.
Delta has invested $60 million in its partner Joby and they have embarked on a collaboration with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Their aim is to create a seamless eVTOL service for Delta passengers, facilitated by user-friendly vertiports and efficient charging facilities. Their services are expected to commence operations at New York's LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, as well as Los Angeles International Airport, as early as 2025.
Initially, the air taxi service will target "premium" customers, with the long-term goal of expanding the fleet and making it cost-competitive with other forms of transportation, such as taking an Uber Black car to the airport from downtown, priced at approximately $200. Passengers will have the option to book a Joby air taxi alongside their Delta flight.
NASA's acoustic recordings showed a 100-fold decrease in the noise footprint when Joby's eVTOL flew overhead as opposed to a more traditional helicopter. The adoption of these electric air taxis will depend on other factors; FAA approvals, the industry's capacity to scale up production, and the ability to offer affordable rates.
Establishing the necessary infrastructure in the right place for the eVTOLs to recharge and become useful outside of being just a shinier helicopter is vital. The key however is the location and access to required infrastructure. If the vertiports are not located near your home or office the use cases start to diminish considerably. The land where these Vertiports will be built and the landowners who control the land and air rights are critical.
European Flying Car Infrastructure
Mott MacDonald, the global engineering, management and development consultancy and UrbanV, a leader in vertiport design and management, have announced their partnership for the development of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) infrastructure.
They aim to identify and explore viable opportunities for project development worldwide in the AAM sector, leveraging UrbanV’s operational experience and Mott
MacDonald’s expertise. The two companies will jointly identify geographies and partnerships that will forward AAM across the globe in the next five years.
Mott MacDonald has worked with governments, investors, operators and airlines on projects at more than 250 airports worldwide – from small regional airfields to global hubs such as Singapore Changi, Istanbul, London Heathrow and New York JFK.
Urban Air Mobility
It is clear that the new dawn of air mobility is on the way, it is up to us how we want it shaped. Airlines that get bailouts every other decade certainly can play their part but nimble decentralized infrastructure owners are what scales this industry beyond what our pattern recognition lazily leads us to. Air taxis which are just better-looking helicopters with a battery, flying the same routes for the same people is hardly worth talking about unless it’s a stepping stone to wider adoption and accessibility.
“Leasing airspace over highways will encourage commercial drone use” - US Federal Highway Administration
Amazon’s vertical integration allows them to keep the full margin from drone delivery and use this to push out less integrated competitors. What is clear is all the drone companies, Amazon included, require the permission of air rights holders to be in their airspace. Many of the companies will continue to infringe on people's property rights until they have a better legal route. The private land owners in Texas who are starting to use their air rights through SkyTrade will have significant upside as the airspace aggregates and the decentralized owners allow their airspace to be used by these competing businesses legally.
Very positively we can actually innovate an industry that has been lumbering for over 70 years. We can create new jobs, new businesses and real economic growth for all of us, including for the politically underrepresented if we look past what we think we know.
Thank you to everyone for reading and if you want to learn more about air rights, urban air mobility or what we are building at SkyTrade please contact me at jonathan@sky.trade
