South Korean drone company PABLO AIR has gained the backing of leading technology and aerospace companies to scale up its presence in the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market.
In a statement PABLO AIR said it had launched a consortium with LG Uplus, Jeju Air, GS Caltex, Kakao Mobility, and Vertical Aerospace to commercialise its UAM programme and signed an agreement to participate in the Korean government’s “Korea Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge (K-UAM GC)”.
A ceremony was held at LG Science Park in Seoul last month to commemorate the six companies’ agreement to cooperate.
Integrated UAM flight control system
PABLO AIR is planning to establish an integrated UAM flight control system based on its previous experience developing PABLO AIR Mobility Network (PAMNet), a smart mobility traffic management system that analyses flight departures and UAM risk and provides integrated management for the stable operation of aircraft.
Each of the other five companies that are part of the consortium together with PABLO AIR has its own defined role under the agreement.
LG Uplus is expected to establish a traffic management system and communication service for the stable operation of UAM, while Jeju Air has agreed to provide safe and reliable flight services, based on its expertise in the aviation field.
Vertiports
Also as part of the agreement, GS Caltex plans to build a UAM Vertiport (Vertical take-off and landing site) utilising the company’s network of fuel stations evenly distributed around the country.
For its part, Kakao Mobility will be using its previous experience operating the complete MaaS (Mobility as a Service) app “Kakao T” to develop a multimodal mobility platform and vertiport solution that will be used for automatic check-in and security search functions.
Vertical Aerospace
Britain’s Vertical Aerospace—a leading global UAM aircraft manufacturer that has already received pre-orders for more than 1,350 eVTOLs —will be in charge of producing UAM aircraft for the consortium. The company is currently scheduled to perform a UAM pilot flight at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kim Young-Joon, CEO of PABLO AIR, commented on the consortium saying: “With this business agreement, we will work with participating companies to reorganise the UAM industrial ecosystem and commercialise UAM services.
“We will successfully develop a UAM Integrated Flight Control System and contribute to the management of UAM operations.”
