“urban air mobility (UAM) ecosystem “ Sounds like a bunch of bureaucrat mumbo-jumbo over something that doesn’t exist and probably never will. Governments around the world are experts at creating shockingly expensive “solutions” to non-existing problems and bogus crises they create, all meant to grow the size of bureaucracy and secure do-nothing government jobs.
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Given the track records of any government/bureaucracy in establishing and managing anything about which they know next to nothing, it’s hard to imagine anything good coming from this.
Non-exisiting problems…? In most bigger cities it takes as long to get from one end to another by car as it would take to fly to another city…
Air taxis will definitely make sense, but obviously a lot needs to be thought through how to integrate them into the NAS.
Looks like the regulatory agencies are going to do to the VTOL industry what they did to the fixed-wing air taxi business–REGULATE IT OUT OF EXISTENCE.
Look at the safety record of the Air Taxi business–and compare it with the far-less-regulated Corporate Aviation segment. The Corporate world has a far better safety record–flying the very same type of aircraft.
The difference? The regulatory cost to would-be charter operators causes them to cut corners–in aircraft and pilots. The result is few charter operators–and those that do survive–do so on a shoestring. It’s a horrible indictment of our regulatory system that corporate operators choose NOT to subject themselves to charter rules–DESPITE having a paid-for aircraft and crew.
Wouldn’t it be better for the industry to be able to expose more people to the advantages of private transportation? How BAD does a “product” (government regulation in the name of safety) have to BE to be so thoroughly rejected? Have you ever heard a corporate pilot express a desire for MORE Air-Taxi-like reservations? NEITHER HAVE I! (smile)
It’s foolish to equate MORE REGULATION with MORE SAFETY.
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One excuse less for the burst of the UAM bubble.
Likely it’s because FAA regulators want to get big time government and airline jobs, not charter jobs.
Yes, but with more strict requirements aimed at insuring we get less for more.
Also, it takes longer to get from downtown to downtown by flying private than driving after you go out of the way twice to airports outside town. You can see the developments where the old, convenient airports were in both towns on the drive to and from the airport.