Altaport white paper provides conops for automated vertiport

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by Yves Le Marquand
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Altaport

Altaport and engineering and design multinational, WSP have released a concept of operations (conops) analysing the business requirements of a vertiport automation system (VAS).

Identifying conops for automated vertiport operations has been the subject of a number of studies  over the past few years. Altaport claims their white paper is different because it discusses a VAS’s role in “integrating critical operational and business requirements in a way that will maximize the value of a vertiport network”.

The document adds context to both operational management of a vertiport, as well as alignment with key business objectives that will drive economic value and facilitate growth across AAM as a whole. The conops was developed to drive coordination around the availability of the requisite landing infrastructure, made possible through a VAS.

Altaport and WSP collaborated with BluSky Services, GeoRQ, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Harper4D Solutions and ResilienX to produce the 72-page white paper.

The conops details several concepts, such as:

  • Adoption of modern operational concepts including Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) and Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) at the VAS and operator level, whether adopted generally at the NAS level or not.
  • Inclusion of an economic dimension within the TBO framework, allowing for the vertiport and aircraft operators to take into consideration the economic or business value of an operation when necessary (e.g., due to atypically constrained availability of resources), appropriate, and permissible.

The white paper concludes successful daily AAM operations will require “extensive coordination” from aircraft development to regulatory updates and infrastructure development to community engagement.

“As the regulations and industry move forward, the successful deployment of a VAS will be critical in achieving the full potential of AAM. The next steps involve detailed planning and implementation, with a focus on integrating the VAS into existing and new vertiport infrastructure. Stakeholders are encouraged to collaborate closely to address challenges and leverage the opportunities presented by the VAS, thereby facilitating a seamless, efficient, and sustainable advanced air mobility ecosystem,” the paper stated.

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