Urban air mobility on approach with K-UAM One Team's successful validation

Industry

Published: 24 Apr. 2024, 17:45

Urban air mobility on approach with K-UAM One Team's successful validation

Participants of the K-UAM One Team project pose for a photo at an aviation test center in Goheung, South Jeolla. [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

Korea's UAM (urban air mobility) initiative has taken a step closer to reality with the successful completion of the first demnstration round, according to participating companies on Wednesday.

Hyundai Motor, Korean Air and other collaborators announced that they have successfully completed the first step of the K-UAM Grand Challenge, a state-backed UAM commercialization project.

The event, which took place at an aviation testing center in Goheung, South Jeolla for five weeks, tested the operation of the aircraft and its traffic management. Infrastructure such as the vertiport, where the UAM takes off and lands vertically, was tested as well.

Hyundai Motor said it tested its own MaaS (mobility as a service), a comprehensive platform for all types of transportation from conventional vehicles to UAM, during the project's first phase. It also collected data on factors such as weather and wind speed that could affect the operation of UAMs.

Hyundai Motor is one five participants of the K-UAM One Team consortium formed in 2021 along with Korean Air, KT, Incheon International Airprt Corporation and Hyundai Engineering & Construction to verify the aircraft's safety and establish industry standards optimized for Korea.

In the project, Korean Air was in charge of traffic management and control systems, utilizing its decades of experience operating airplanes. It verified its own UAM-dedicated operation control system and traffic management system.

The airline said it verified the systems based on 10 scenarios to test functionality.

KT set up a platform that can process data on traffic and safety in real time while Hyundai Engineering & Construction analyzed the demonstration of the vertiport in various simulations.

"We will continue to work toward detailing Korea's UAM project by working closely with the consortium that has abundant experience and know-how in various sectors required for convenient UAM operation for future customers," Hyundai Motor said in a release.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]