Vertiports, Air Traffic Management, and Infrastructure Requirements for eVTOL Aircraft

Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, are expected to receive FAA certification and begin operating in the next few years. It is important for developers of these vehicles to consider the need for new infrastructure to support eVTOL operations. Changes in air traffic management (ATM) must also be considered, especially as the number of eVTOL aircraft and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) operating in the national airspace increases.

UTM, or uncrewed traffic management, is another component that needs to be developed because many of these aircraft will eventually be remotely operated or autonomously piloted.

There are many companies that have developed concepts for eVTOL aircraft, including Joby, Archer, Eve, Lilium, EHang, Volocopter, Vertical Aerospace, Hyundai’s Supernal, and Airbus.

A number of other companies have started to focus on the development of infrastructure to support these aircraft. These include vertiport developers and operators such as VPorts, Skyports, Volatus, Ferrovial, Varon, and Skyportz. Vertiports are similar to today’s heliports but are specifically developed to support advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft like eVTOLs.

Jörn Jaeger, Head of Airspace and Vertiports at Volocopter, shared in an interview with Avionics International that finding the right infrastructure for eVTOL aircraft is an industry-wide challenge. “We need to make sure that the infrastructure fits our aircraft’s operations in particular, which are specific because it is a multi-rotor aircraft,” he explained.

“We can make use of existing infrastructure,” Jaeger added. “If there is a need for new infrastructure, it has to be purpose-built to be agnostic for different VTOL aircraft.”

While eVTOLs can—and will—take off from conventional heliports, vertiports support a greater volume of operations. Vertiports will also incorporate charging and electric infrastructure.

“You will need the infrastructure to support electric power or batteries to be charged on the ground,” Jaeger said. Fast charging capabilities, originally an innovation in the automotive industry, will prove to be useful for vertiports. “There is definitely the need to have infrastructure and facilities available to charge, swap, and store batteries,” he noted.

2022 has been a landmark year for the release of vertiport design recommendations and standards. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published the world's first vertiport design specifications in March 2022. The "Prototype Technical Design Specifications for Vertiports" provides technical guidance and best practices for the ground infrastructure that will enable future urban air mobility operations.

In August, ASTM International, a standards development organization, published a new standard providing guidance on the design and development of vertiports for states and municipalities. ASTM’s standard also listed specifications for vertistop designs. Vertistops, though similar to vertiports, are only built for onboarding or offboarding passengers and cargo and do not allow for fueling or scheduled maintenance.

In September 2022, the FAA released its design guidelines for vertiports. The document included safety-critical design elements, recommendations for charging infrastructure, and requirements for vertiport construction at existing commercial airports.

In an interview with Avionics, the CEO of Ferrovial Vertiports, Kevin Cox, highlighted the company’s commitment to sustainability as part of its vertiport development strategy. “We are committed to innovation and to being part of a future of faster and greener mobility,” he explained. “We’re taking a global lead in vertiport development, creating sustainable, interconnected infrastructures for VTOLs.”

He added that they are working with local power suppliers to design vertiports. The goal is a zero-carbon footprint, and they plan to achieve that by using renewable energy to power facilities and flight operations.

Ferrovial Vertiports is working with many of the leading eVTOL manufacturers and operators. One of the company’s partners is Lilium; they agreed to work together on the development of a network of vertiports in Florida.

“Our vertiports are open to any operator that wishes to fly in them, and we are proactively engaging with the different stakeholders to make sure that our infrastructure meets their requirements,” Kevin Cox shared.

He explained that the business models for vertiports and heliports are quite different. “Vertiports are targeting a broader market base due to the lower cost of operating this aircraft when compared to helicopters,” he said.

“This means higher volumes of traffic, which means a bigger terminal building for processing and accommodating passengers while they wait for their flights to depart. It also means quicker aircraft turnarounds in the vertiport.”

Vertiports also need to be located where the demand is. In most cases, Cox noted, this means integrating the infrastructure into urban areas, which comes along with challenges such as land use and airspace compatibility.

Alongside Volocopter’s eVTOL aircraft models, the VoloCity and VoloConnect, the company has also designed a vertiport concept called the VoloPort.

Volocopter’s Jörn Jaeger remarked that vertiport development needs to take into account the surrounding airspace and potential obstacles. Existing heliport design guidance and standards include strict recommendations for obstacle-free areas. “For our operations and the performance of our aircraft, we can fly in and out of a vertiport at much steeper angles,” he explained. “There’s no need to have the same limitations for the environment as for a heliport. It’s quite important to have a different approach.”

In the mid-term and long-term, he added that Volocopter’s team must “design the vertiport for high throughput and very efficient turnaround of the aircraft.”

In regards to air traffic management, eVTOL operators have to ensure that the aircraft will be able to fly according to the existing airspace rules. To this end, Volocopter is in discussions with EASA and other aviation authorities to understand what regulations apply to eVTOL aircraft for airspace integration.

It’s also important to consider increasing automation of flights to enable a high volume of operations. “We will start with a pilot and very conventional VFR,” Jaeger stated. “We are involved in conversations about UTM or U-space to see how we can contribute. We also have to design the aircraft accordingly to regularly increase automation.”

Long-term, he said, their goal at Volocopter is to get the pilot out of the cockpit and have remotely piloted, autonomous operations. He added, “We are in contact with partners to make that happen.”

Air traffic controllers will be able to “see” eVTOLs like the VoloCity via devices for electronic conspicuity, such as transponders. “I think we will also provide ADS-B out,” Jaeger shared. “For the new airspace, or U-space, smaller UAS may be made visible by new means of identification.” UAS could also have onboard this kind of equipment if necessary, he explained.

Safety and reliability are two of the most important considerations for navigation and communication when it comes to eVTOL aircraft and other advanced air mobility vehicles. When an aircraft flies into or out of a city, it must have at least two independent sources for navigation. These aircraft require highly reliable and accurate data that can be shared in real time.

eVTOL developer Archer Aviation’s go-to-market plan will initially rely heavily on existing infrastructure. The company recently announced with United Airlines that they will launch a route for eVTOL flights between the airport in Newark and downtown Manhattan.

There is an existing heliport in Manhattan that Archer’s Midnight eVTOL will utilize, and the infrastructure at the Newark airport can also be used by eVTOLs. Adam Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Archer Aviation, commented in an interview with Avionics, “I think you’ll see a lot more of those types of routes that utilize existing infrastructure.”

“There are a lot of under-utilized heliports in general. We will build more infrastructure or work with companies to build more infrastructure. There are 50,000 helicopters globally today. It’s going to take a long time to build enough vehicles to replace those. Over time, we’ll expand the infrastructure network.”

The company VPorts—based in Québec, Canada—designs, constructs, and operates infrastructure for advanced air mobility. According to Dr. Fethi Chebil, CEO and Founder of VPorts, one of the challenges is that there is not as much interest from investors in eVTOL infrastructure as there has been for the aircraft themselves. Another challenge is selecting vertiport locations. These pieces of infrastructure need to be easily accessible for eVTOL passengers.

Additionally, vertiport developers and operators have to consider social acceptance of AAM operations, as do eVTOL OEMs. “We need to do a lot of work to educate people early on,” Dr. Chebil told Avionics. “Then we need to demonstrate safety.”

“Air traffic management integration is a key element in the process of enabling advanced air mobility,” he added. “We need to create a data sharing protocol where all the players can have access to the same data at the same time to make decisions. There will be a lot of eVTOLs flying. We need to create at least a framework so the industry can evolve properly.”

Dr. Chebil sees a need for the creation of an integrative center with open airspace where members of the AAM ecosystem can work together to do flight testing. There needs to be government involvement and support, and different players should collaborate to develop a vision for eVTOL integration.