European project on innovative air mobility takes off

SESAR 3 JU has announced that a European-funded consortium led by Honeywell has got underway, enabling the safe accommodation of Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) in European Air Traffic Management (ATM) and U-space – a geographical zone designated by Member States, where unmanned aircraft system operations are only allowed to take place with the support of U-space services relying on digital services and automation of functions designed to support safe, secure and efficient access.

The consortium will develop and validate two IAM solutions addressing the ecosystem of manned air-taxi and unmanned cargo cross-border operations.

IAM is a new air transportation system for passengers and cargo, enabled by new technologies and integrated into multimodal transportation systems. The European Commission’s initiative for safe and secure integration of drones and other autonomous aircraft into our airspace, namely U-Space, will play a key-role in enabling Innovative Air Mobility, which is expected to advance autonomous technologies in a number of areas.

Co-funded by the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking within the framework of the Horizon Europe and the Digital European Sky, the OperA (Operate Anywhere) project involves a three-year multidisciplinary collaboration between 15 value chain partners (including 4 affiliates) from 11 European countries covering the whole ecosystem for IAM aircraft. The partners include Spanish airport operator Aena.

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