Skyports has signed an agreement to develop the UK's first demonstration airport, at Bicester Motion, Oxfordshire, on a 1.8 square kilometer area dedicated to Advanced Air Motion (AAM) testing.
The new vertical airfield will be a major facility for testing ground infrastructure and flight operations and will play an important role in enabling the next generation of low-noise electric aviation in the UK. It will include:
- A compact station to showcase the efficient nature of the infrastructure and highlight the ability to integrate into the urban landscape, where space is at its highest, and facilitate rapid flow of passengers;
- Passenger processing facilities, which will include access control gates, weight and balance optimization, identity verification, verification and screening. The addition of the passenger-only lounge will provide a comprehensive customer experience;
- The operations room is equipped with Skyports' Vertiport Automation System (VAS) technology suite, which will feature a dedicated resource management and scheduling module to enable high-throughput, non-aircraft operations;
- Situational awareness module to provide visualization tools for comprehensive airspace and airport vertical monitoring.
The vertical airport, which is positioned alongside Bicester Motion's existing public aviation runways, will be developed as part of the Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium and supported by Innovate UK's Future Aviation Challenge.
The framework will inform initial planning and demonstrations, as well as the consortium's broader testing program and public and stakeholder engagement. This will include Vertical Aerospace, a company developing an eVTOL aircraft that will use the space to conduct test flights and test key procedures before commercial launch.
The UK vertical port design, which was submitted to Cherwell District Council, was inspired by existing Skyports test platforms in Paris and California. Skyports aims to open its airport doors in the UK by the end of 2024.
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