UAM, UTM, and NextGen

Urban Air Mobility (UAM)

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is the commercial use of carrying goods and people using manned or unmanned systems. Air Taxi and Parcel delivery are two examples of UAM. UAM for Air Taxi would be similar to how UBER is used for vehicles. A user would request a pick up at a location. This location could be a landing pad, or it could be a location in a parking lot or even the side of a street. The user would get inside the air taxi and fly to their destination.

Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM)

UTM is a system to allow for Unmanned Aircraft (UA) to operate within controlled and uncontrolled airspace alongside other unmanned aircraft and manned aircraft. The system would allow for unmanned aircraft to operate beyond visual line-of-sight to enable users of UA to fly from one location to another without a visual observer. The FAA envisions UTM to manage airspace to allow for multiple UA operations where air traffic services are not provided.

One of the most significant challenges of integrating UA into the NAS is the trust of UA to perform as expected. If there is a malfunction on a manned aircraft, the pilots onboard are physically on the aircraft to continue to fly the airplane and work on mitigating the malfunction in person. If a UA has a malfunction, the pilots are not onboard and do not have the same sensory inputs. The UA pilots cant feel how the aircraft is responding, and if the UA loses its command and control link, the pilot may not be capable of sending any commands or actions to the aircraft.

If a UA loses the link to the pilot, the aircraft is no longer receiving input from the pilot. This means that the aircraft will be flying with manned and unmanned aircraft around it, with no human at the controls. If the UA does not have a contingency flight plan or action that would keep it in a safe location or flight plan, it could endanger others by flying through congested areas full of other air traffic. A loss of command and control link can remove the pilot's ability to talk on the radio through the aircraft. This would force the pilot to utilize some other means to speak with ATC, like calling them on the phone. A problem that I have encountered in this situation is knowing exactly which phone number to call to contact the specific controller that is in charge of your UA.

Next Generation Air Traffic System (NextGen)

NextGen is the future of the National Airspace System (NAS) Air Traffic Control (ATC). NextGen is a system of systems that utilize satellite-based navigation and digital communication for air controllers to speak and work with pilots. The process to incorporate these systems in today's operations has already occurred and has a phased based approach of integrating the new system while phasing out older methods.

Incorporating UA into the NAS will require the capability to monitor the location of the aircraft at all times. This would allow other UA pilots to see where traffic is in relation to their own aircraft. This is also important for manned aircraft to see where the unmanned aircraft are to ensure there is safe separation. A possible solution to this is Detect Sense and Avoid (DSA). DSA would incorporate multiple sensing capabilities, either on the ground or in the air, to enable a safe separation between manned and unmanned aircraft.