Future Flight Challenge

The UK Government’s Future Flight Challenge aims to revolutionise the way we travel and find new, greener ways to fly. A group of leading British aviation, technology and transport companies has come together to form a consortium to answer the challenge and explore the future of mobility.

AtkinsRéalis, Vertical Aerospace, Virgin Atlantic, Skyports and NATS, along with Connected Places Catapult and AtkinsRéalis, leading academic institutions Cranfield University and WMG, University of Warwick, Together, the firms will develop the necessary technology and infrastructure in a project that will significantly accelerate the introduction of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) in the UK.

The Consortium has been awarded a £9.5 million grant by the UK Government’s Future Flight Challenge to develop essential building blocks of a viable ecosystem that has the potential to be progressed into full commercial AAM operations. This first-of-a-kind ecosystem will accelerate the introduction of AAM in the UK by creating and testing technological developments in aircraft electrification, airspace management, operational procedures and the systems and supporting business cases needed to introduce a new model of aerial passenger transport in the UK.

Accelerating AAM

The project will demonstrate the feasibility of a UK AAM ecosystem using Vertical Aerospace’s emission-free VX4 eVTOL aircraft, operated by Virgin Atlantic. Two physical flights will take place between Bristol Airport to an airfield in South West England, and between London Heathrow Airport and the Living Lab vertiport. A third simulation flight will demonstrate urban connectivity between London City and Bristol airports.

These demonstrations will explore key aspects of the passenger journey, vehicle operation, airspace navigation, ground charging, security provision and local stakeholder engagement. Heathrow Airport, Bristol Airport, Skyports and NATS, the UK’s national air navigation service provider, will collaborate to deliver the physical and digital infrastructure to facilitate these missions through a complex airspace environment.

The two-year project will be overseen by aerospace engineering experts AtkinsRéalis as consortium lead. Other nations are racing to establish their own AAM ecosystems by 2025 – this project ensures the UK will be amongst the leaders in this new decarbonised form of transport.

Benefits of Advanced Air Mobility

AAM offers a new form of travel, enabling cost-effective connectivity into congested urban areas and across regions under-served by existing infrastructure.

The UK Government Future Flight Challenge forecast that the introduction of AAM services will increase UK GDP by 1.8% by 2030 and support the government’s Levelling Up and Net Zero agendas, reflecting the productivity and wider economic benefits of increased connectivity.

Novel Infrastructure

Skyports will build and operate a “Living Lab” vertiport to create a testbed for ground, passenger and air operations for the project duration. This centre of innovation will help to materially accelerate the development of AAM services and establish the UK as a leader in the design and operation of vertiport infrastructure.

AtkinsRéalis

With a focus on integration, AtkinsRéalis will lead the consortium and is responsible for technical management and integration of the two-year programme as it moves AAM from concept stage towards implementation. It will leverage its decades of aviation expertise to oversee the systems architecture and deliver a digitally enabled passenger journey management tool for infrastructure and flight operators.

Virgin Atlantic

As the only airline in the consortium, Virgin Atlantic will bring to the table its long history in pioneering innovation and a unique perspective on what’s required to make an eVTOL network a reality; from the operation and logistics, including training pilots and developing flight plans, to delivering on real passenger needs to ensure every aspect of the end-to-end journey is considered for a safe and seamless experience.

Vertical Aerospace

Vertical will deploy a VX4 from its flight test campaign to conduct the first AAM passenger demonstrations in the UK in 2024. Vertical will collaborate with the other consortium members to prepare the physical and digital infrastructure in the UK to accommodate the VX4 as part of a scalable, commercial AAM ecosystem.

The project demonstration flights are planned for Spring 2024, with Vertical expecting to receive full type certification and entering into service in 2025. Vertical Aerospace will be in constant dialogue with the UK CAA throughout this process to receive the necessary regulatory approvals to conduct the proposed missions.

Skyports Infrastructure

Skyports Infrastructure will undertake the design, build and electrification of a new vertiport at a General Aviation (GA) airfield in London. The “Living Lab” vertiport will be utilised throughout the project for testing of ground operations and the customer journey. Operational missions with the Vertical Aerospace VA-X4 eVTOL aircraft, operated by Virgin Atlantic, will take place between the Skyports vertiport and Heathrow Airport.

The vertiport will be enabled by an efficient and reliable cloud capability, powering AAM ecosystem collaboration such as airspace integration with ANSP and UTM providers, passenger identity management, and resource management/scheduling systems integration with fleet operators. Skyports is also leading the creation of demand capacity models to understand the complexities of developing an initial UK network with various airport partners.

NATS

NATS is leading the airspace management part of the project, developing the technologies and processes that will be needed to integrate new airspace users, such as drones and electric air taxis, into UK airspace.

Using current airspace expertise, analysis and simulations, NATS will develop a concept of operations, in collaboration with the other consortium members, for safely integrating electric air taxis. The result will be a model for how UAM can be integrated into our airspace, and help airports, air navigation service providers, and other stakeholders to develop their systems and procedures ready for future UAM operations. This concept will then be used in simulations to test and validate processes and technology solutions prior to the real-world demonstrations towards the end of the project.

Cranfield University

Cranfield University will be providing vertiport capacity modelling as part of the consortium. Passenger expectations and behaviour will shape the infrastructure requirement for landing pads and vertiports. In this context the work will focus on the development of a highly integrated vertiport infrastructure to realise AAM, including all related support infrastructure such as landside access, aircraft parking and charging spots, gate areas for emplane and deplane, among others.

Echoing airspace operational constraints this part of the research will specifically investigate passenger processing areas and times, convenience and efficiency in relation to the establishment of AAM as a new service to the public. One critical aspect will be the allocation of vertiport services on air and landside in relation to security aspects along the journey and relevant access points at various downtown and suburban landing pads. Passenger throughput will be modelled with regards to vertiport size and spatial organisation, aircraft sizes, processing times, business rules and regulatory requirements, along with certain prioritisation schemes potentially under a collaborative decision-making mechanism.

Cranfield will also provide the schedule & resource management optimisation component. Which will develop an integrated scheduling service to realise airspace/vertiport resource management, including arrival and departure management (AMAN/DMAN) types of applications, as well as assignment of parking and charging spots, gates for emplane and deplane, among others. Operational constraints such as aircraft capabilities, business rules and regulatory requirements will be modelled, along with certain prioritisation schemes potentially under a collaborative decision-making mechanism.

WMG, University of Warwick

As part of the consortium, WMG, at the University of Warwick, brings many years of experience of developing battery and EV for automotive and aerospace industries, and working particularly in close collaboration with Vertical Aerospace for this project, to integrate a smart-diagnostic functionality to the battery charger device for use in the test flights, and expanding its capability to fast charging to enable fast turn-around time.

Heathrow Airport

Britain's largest cargo port and one of the world's top aviation hubs, Heathrow Airport has agreed to support one of the consortium's key test flights by 2024. Which, along with test flights to Bristol and London City Airports, will allow the consortium to research and take learnings from operating different airport environments.

Bristol Airport

As England’s third largest regional airport and acting as the primary gateway to the South West and South Wales, Bristol Airport has taken a pioneering role on sustainability with a target to achieve net zero operations by 2030 and is working with partners to accelerate the decarbonisation of flight. Bristol Airport are supporting the creation of a demonstration environment within the region for eVTOL aircraft and will play a critical role in the evaluation of the integration and impact on the wider transportation network.

London City Airport

London City Airport will act as the destination of the final demonstration flight. This third mission will be a digitally simulate a flight between Bristol Airport and London City Airport to test airspace integration of longer inter-city airport connectivity.

Connect Places Catapult

Connected Places Catapult is supporting the project management of the programme on behalf of the consortium; performing an impact and benefits assessment to assess the wider economic, social and environmental benefits of the proposed service to the local area and the UK; developing a multi-model transport demand model for the service; and supporting the community engagement.

EVE Air Mobility

The consortium will also be support by EVE Air Mobility as an unfunded partner, working closely with Skyports Infrastructure and NATS to incorporate the use of Eve’s vertiport and fleet operator software into the project as part of the integration into the wider aviation ecosystem.