Space agency says stakeholders need to work together to build public trust in order to gain from opportunities and benefits of the urban air market

The emerging urban air market is set to create a “huge opportunity” for aviation which could bring massive benefits for the travelling public.

Bob Pearce, Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics at NASA, said the US space agency would be working together with the wider industry to bring forward benefits which can be achieved through the development of the new urban air sector.

Pearce said: “NASA Aeronautics is an organisation that has the mission to solve the problems of flight to capture the opportunities, so UAM is a huge opportunity for aviation to provide public benefits and create a new form of transportation for the travelling public.”

Sector needs to work together to create credibility

Pearce said the involvement of organisations such as NASA would help build public trust in the market, but cautioned this could only be achieved if all stakeholders worked together. He said: “It’s going to take the regulators like the FAA in the US, its going to take the innovators like NASA and its going to take the entrepreneurial community to create the vehicles and the systems and so forth. “So, it’s all of us working together that create the credibility and to create the infrastuctures and the systems that will form the UAM system.”

Pearce said that the urban air mobility sector would need the ability to scale along similar lines to automotive to bring down prices, yet still be able to operate at the high safety standards required by the aviation sector. He said NASA expected to see vehicles operating in 2028.

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