In this episode we talk with Brenden Hedblom from the Eve Consortium on its new concept of operations (CONOPS) into how future types of flying, such as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, could be safety incorporated into London’s airspace.

You can find more information on this work at:

UK Concept of Operations (CONOPS)

Key Considerations for Airspace Integration within an Urban Air Mobility Landscape (CAP 2272)

Additional work from Eve:

Urban air traffic management concept of operations

Flight Plan 2030 - An air traffic management concept for urban air mobility

Other podcasts from the UK CAA include:

CAA Drone safety - https://podfollow.com/caa-drone-safety

CAA on General Aviation - https://podfollow.com/caa-on-general-aviation

Voiceover 0:00

News, views and interviews. This is CAA On Air.

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 0:08

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the next edition of CAA On Air, the podcast from the Civil Aviation Authority. I'm Jonathan Nicholson from the Communications team. And just before we start with this edition, probably worth just mentioning now that we've actually split our podcasts into a number of podcasts now. So this one 'On Air' will continue to be about innovation and all the technologies we're working with in the innovative world. And then now we've split out. So we also have a drones podcast to cover all safety issues around drones. We have a general aviation podcast for everything to do with recreational flying. And then we'll also be launching an occurrences podcast as well, where we're picking out specific incidents from across the aviation spectrum. And some of the lessons learned from those but this one they listen to now on air, this will remain about innovation. So in today's episode, we're going to be looking at eVTOL vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and particularly how we're actually going to integrate and operate them in urban areas, which is one of the key uses that they will be put to in the future. So this is really a follow on from when if you'd listened before we spoke to the Eve Consortium on a previous podcast, which was talking about the launch of this piece of work, which was developing a concept of operations about how these urban air vehicles, Evie tolls will actually integrate into the urban environment. And they've been doing a study in London. And so I'm very glad to say we're back with the Eve team today. And back with Brendan from the Eve team. So welcome, Brenden. And did you want to introduce yourself?

Brenden Hedblom (Eve) 1:44

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, Jonathan. Thank you for having having myself on to share more about the work we've been doing with the CAA on the podcast. My name's Brenden Hedbloom, I am Head of Traffic Management Solutions at Eve Air Mobility responsible for the development and product strategy of the urban air traffic management solutions that will be necessary to safely scale urban air mobility for the future, as well as the integration for all airspace users within that low level complex airspace in the urban environment. Eve Air Mobility is a recent spin out of Embraer that was incubated in Embraer's incubator that was focused on developing disruptive technologies in the transportation sector. And with Eve, we are bringing in the technology partnerships and capabilities that have allowed Embraer to be successful for over 50 years by delivering trusted safe air traffic control products and aircraft to the market. And we're using that same expertise to really make sure that our partners are prepared for this new future and so that everyone in the UK can rely on the safe operating environment that we look forward to continue to contribute to and supporting our other partnerships that we formed with through this consortium and to do so for the many years to come.

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 1:48

Excellent. That's really good and it definitely sounds like you're well placed to have a good view and a really good input into what you guys have actually produced as a sort of end part of this particular piece of work. Obviously, there's lots more to come, before we get to eVTOL being up and running every day within the urban environment. But we still see people talk about eVTOL operations and everyday manufacturers and other people are talking about new products and test flights. But actually what you've now produced is called a CONOPS, a concept of operations. So for those who haven't come across this theory before of CONOPS, what is one? And what does it add to the development?

Brenden Hedblom (Eve) 3:41

Certainly, yes, at high level, I think Concept of Operations are often developed when the future of how something will work or components of that future require further detail. And they provide an opportunity for us to really dive into the technical components of that future and explore the kind of characteristics for how that proposed system or framework will function. And as well as the challenges that are associated with it, and how to overcome those challenges, how they really provide a space for us to demonstrate through exploring tangible examples for that vision being proposed. And to demonstrate that it's feasible and can hold up to the scrutiny that will need to be tested in order for what is being proposed eventually to become a reality. And it's providing that kind of initial validation for the broader community to provide them a aligned direction for us to all go towards. In the world of urban air mobility or UAM the challenges that lay ahead of us are very complex, they're very intertwined, and collaboratively developing these concepts of operations really provides us with the kind of crucial step to test and challenge the approaches that are being explored and for us to really rally behind a common approach that charts a course for success in the future.

On the CONOPS that we specifically developed, really presented a model for safely integrating these passenger carrying eVTOLs in low level airspace in the UK and how to establish that appropriate infrastructure.

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 5:12

And it's probably also worth saying to those that aren't so close to it that it is worth emphasizing the fact that as you mentioned, it's not as simple as 'Okay, great we've built this amazing new aerial vehicle, this eVTOL type aircraft, let's just go and fly it'. You've got everything from the airspace structure to other airspace users, its environmental impact, although, obviously, potentially a lot less than other forms of flying, there still is one. So it's not just, 'Hey, let's go and get into the air'. There's all of that huge infrastructure and all those other stakeholders to actually integrate into the picture, isn't there?

Brenden Hedblom (Eve) 5:46

Yeah, absolutely and that was a very important component that we explored closely in in the consortiums work and the regulatory sandbox. As you mentioned, this isn't just about getting a single aircraft to fly it is to ensure that the business case of bringing UAM to the communities at the kind of scale that has been proposed can be done safely. And a lot of things need to be considered in order to do that. A lot of it includes taking into consideration the existing airspace users the complexity of the airspace that exists today, and how to use the current resources and tools at our disposal to support this initial operations, and identify the challenges that will need to be addressed and overcome in order to safely scale beyond what can be supported today. So a lot of that is what we explored in this work.

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 6:34

Excellent, I think that will be a real help going forward. And for anybody that comes into that kind of urban environment to actually benefit from

Brenden Hedblom (Eve) 6:42

Absolutely. And I think what was very important for us in participating in a regulatory sandbox was the opportunity to bring thought leaders across industry, together to collaboratively work in a kind of a common direction, towards a shared vision for how this feature will work. As the harmonisation that is necessary to support UAM at a global level, will be really important and this really provided us an opportunity to work with cross industry, with government and the broader community.

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 7:16

Great and was there a particular reason why you chose London to do this concept around? Do you think it will be kind of a good example for other big cities that they'll have to deal with the same thing?

Brenden Hedblom (Eve) 7:26

Yeah, absolutely so we chose London for a number of reasons. One, the business case in London is very strong. And there's a real clear need for these kinds of services as an alternative form of transport, and the value it can bring to the community. So that was really a good starting point. But in addition to that the complexity of the use case in London was also very important. We figured that if we could devise a solution or an approach framework that could be applied successfully to the London environment, we would have a model that could be applied, really throughout the UK, to help bring UAM to all regions of the country. And I think it's ultimately important to quickly clarify that the concept of operations is not necessarily London specific. We use London really as this tangible use case to help derive the challenges. But the regulatory and operational challenges associated with UAM, particularly focused on airspace integration, and the ground infrastructure necessary to support it. And the CONOPS itself provided a approach a framework that can be used through all regions of the UK, but used London to provide kind of colour and real life through these tangible examples of how it could actually work. So that would just be a good clarification too regarding the CONOPS. In addition to that, we believe that the UK is really in a position to be a global leader in Urban Air Mobility, as London also represents the most complex airspace globally. And if we're able to demonstrate how it can be done within that environment, it could be a framework that we could use to support kind of global harmonisation across industry as well with a framework that can be adopted worldwide.

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 9:23

Brilliant, thank you. I think that really helps frame it for people to get a real picture of about what's involved. It's probably worth at this point, also mentioning the people that were involved in the Eve consortium, because to make it London centric, if you like and UK centric specifically, you did have quite a few UK stakeholders as part of the consortium, didn't you?

Brenden Hedblom (Eve) 9:41

That was absolutely absolutely the case. So in addition to Eve, we also had NATS as the UK Air Navigation Service Provider, bringing a significant amount of air traffic management air traffic control expertise, they're a world renowned air navigation service provider, Eve recognises this from the amount of work that we do around the world and the leadership NATS brings at a global level and the airspace and procedure design expertise, their understanding of current air traffic management solutions, the airspace change policy was really a critical component to developing a CONOPS that represented a feasible and practical approach for scaling UAM. In addition to NATS, we were also very fortunate to have both Heathrow Airport and London City Airport as two essential participants in the development of the CONOPS. Now in addition to them being an important stakeholder for the airport shuttle use case for urban air mobility, these are two organizations that really understand the complexity of the airspace around airports, the integration with the existing ground infrastructure, how the airside operations are going to need to be managed, as well as kind of airspace change policies that are necessary to introduce new routes, new ground infrastructure locations to support UAM as well as also being involved with the airspace modernisation strategy that is being continuously developed and worked out with in the UK. Also, they understand community sensitivity and the social licence that will be necessary to support UAM. They brought a really important component to the consortium as well. In addition to that, we also had Skyports, another UK based company that focuses on the ground infrastructure side of Urban Air Mobility, the vertaports that will be used to support Urban Air Mobility, they really understand how vertaports will work from both the design requirements, the policy and regulation around them the ground services that will be necessary, as well as the systems that will be used to support the integration of vertaports with the fleet operators that will be actually flying these aircraft. In addition to that, we also had Vertical Aerospace and Volocopter as two other OEM aircraft manufacturers in addition to Eve, which was a very important component to us going into the development of this consortium. If we're looking at airspace integration, aircraft agnostic is a very important component, we always need to ensure we're advancing fair and equitable access to the airspace. And that's gonna be no different with the OEM, especially when we need to consider the other existing as well as emerging airspace users that will also be seeking access to low level airspace, having their involvement in this consortium as well ensured we had different vehicle perspectives and manufacturers represented, that the different approaches that are being taken are being incorporated into our understanding of what the airspace integration challenges and needs will be. And they also have experience and exposure with the operators either through looking to operate their own vehicles or through the partnerships being formed. And that provided a really holistic approach from the aircraft side. Finally, we also had Atech. This is a Embraer is wholly owned ATM subsidiary, they have decades of experience in providing safety, critical air traffic management solutions, today's airspace, and really understand the airspace integration, challenges, information exchange requirements and standards that will be necessary to actually develop some of these traffic management solutions that will be necessary. So bringing all of these organisations to together under kind of one consortium to participate in the regulatory sandbox for the development of this concept of operations provided us with a really holistic view of what will be necessary and allowed us to really challenge our assumptions as well. Overall, it was it was a really great group. And it was a pleasure to work with all these organisations

Jonathan Nicholson (CAA) 9:48

That's certainly a significant list that you were able to detail there. I think if you put all of that together, there's some real key important players there. And I think that really gives you the confidence in the CONOPS that you've produced, that if you're looking at a case study, if you like how to bring the infrastructure into being and integrate into the air space, you've really covered the bases there with that selection of people, haven't you?

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, with that said, it is certainly not exhaustive. There are a lot of other stakeholders that need to be engaged and included in this work as well. And we ensured we conducted a series of stakeholder engagement activities to try to reach some of those additional players that really have a role to play in Urban Air Mobility to ensure we were able to hear what their needs concerns are and to incorporate those challenges and feedback into our own work. There's also of course, you know, the engagement we had with the CAA throughout the development of this concept of operations, or this project, where the CAA provided a lot of really great engagement in different ways at different stages throughout the project. So we're really thankful also in order to have that level of engagement commitment from the CAA to really match our enthusiasm in this space.

So thank you. That's really good. So as far then as the CONOPS in the London environment, what was the end result? So after doing it, what does the CONOPS show us? That we need to do as far as the UK in integration or London to be even more specific or further afield? Even? What does it show that people need to do to get this operation in place in urban environments?

So I think in summary, what we found through this CONOPS, particularly as relates to the London environment is that low density UAM operations can be supported by the existing procedures and technologies that we have today. But there is a significant amount of preparation required in order to do so especially if we're looking to reach the volume of operations that will be necessary to achieve the business case that we're all aiming towards. Though current procedures really are adequate for low volume UAM operation in this kind of Horizon one that we've defined, its just important to emphasise that horizon one is not the goal that we're looking to achieve. Nor are we looking to reach capacity of what can be supported based off of current resources, both procedurally and technologically in order to justify the transition to horizon two where we are seeking to move beyond what the current ecosystem can support. Ultimately, we think this could actually do more harm than good by straining the resources today, particularly air traffic controllers that will provide air traffic services under the current procedures. And that this preparation for Horizon two really must be done in parallel. Additionally, we found that the evolution of the current airspace change policy is really essential for the dynamic and expedited introduction of new routes, and vertaport locations, where today, that process is one that is slow and not really designed for this new environment where new vertaport locations are going to be looked to be introduced much more quickly, and new airspace structures will be necessary to potentially support those operations. Also, we saw that the initial operations really can leverage kind of dedicated UAM routes following the current rules, as well as leveraging transponder mandatory zones for increased situational awareness to increase capacity.

That's really interesting, because to me hearing that it sounds and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like it's not a million miles away from what you've discovered in the CONOPS. From the work we've done with other organizations involved in this, that it's all eminently feasible and doesn't need to start, again, from the ground up with a whole new set of procedures or infrastructure. I mean, yes, we'll need to adapt what we have, for example, need new landing sites. But you know, as far as how we move this into real world, we're not saying this is a complete game changer in a completely different setup that we're going to need to put in place.

Yeah, I think that's correct. And it's, I think, important to recognize, in order to get to this future vision that we have, where UAM will be operating at higher density, higher tempo operations than we've really seen before that it will be necessary to begin with what we have today and build out the safety case, in order to support the incremental advancements towards that future. So in order to get to B, we first have to recognize that we're starting at A and to do that recognizing and understanding how we can leverage the resources we have today, what near term challenges exist, so we can prioritize our efforts to address those things is a very important approach. And I think a unique component that this CONOPS explored in detail.

And certainly when when we talk about innovation in aviation, we're always constantly referring back to that safety first, build on what we know already, what we know is safe, what works and develop that. And that's exactly what you're saying it fits into, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's an important way to look at it from the experience that the consortium collectively has within the aviation space, we understand that the way the aviation industry evolves, requires us to understand what we're building off of, and how to leverage those resources effectively, and how to introduce new procedures and technology in a way that is inclusive of all airspace users.

I think that's another interesting thing as well. So I think when there's a lot of talk about urban operations with eVTOLs quite often there's perhaps a wrong perception that some of the existing traditional players in the aviation world that are using the airspace would have issues with it, or aren't in favour, but actually, I'm getting the impression from a lot of people that you've dealt with as part of this CONOPS work that they're already operating in the aviation environment that actually they're very supportive and looking to make this kind of work happen.

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot of benefits to gain from the existing aviation community through the introduction and emergence of UAM through the introduction of eVTOLs, based on the kind of new solutions and automation that can be leveraged by all stakeholders by all airspace users not just to the operators of these new aircraft, as discussed earlier, a fair and equitable access to airspace is essential to the success of this industry. There are a lot of existing airspace users that will continue to seek access to this airspace. So how we can safely integrate these new aircraft and safely scale these operations. We're taking a fully integrated, unified approach that takes into consideration helicopters general aviation, the emergence and increased use of drone operations, in addition to eVTOLs will be essential in building that social licence that will be necessary to gain the support required to advance this industry.

Brilliant. And that's why CONOPS is so useful, isn't it? Because it highlights that pulls it all together, and gives it to us in a package. So, Brenden, is there anything else that you wanted to bring out from the report from the CONOPS or cover today?

I may just add one component that I think is very important regarding the broader picture contributions that bodies of work such as the concept of operations the consortium produced is in advancing the global conversation, for Urban Air Mobility. Particularly as it relates to airspace integration, and operations for UAM. Global harmonisation will be really essential because it will allow those that are developing the technology solutions to be able to implement these capabilities across country to country, region to region, if we are not adopting or following a harmonised approach, the additional costs that will be incurred in order to tailor each solution per region will increase dramatically. And those costs will eventually be passed on to the passengers. And that will really hurt Urban Air Mobility's chances to really make this a more accessible mode of transportation for the community. So its hoped with this kind of concept of operation and body of work that's developed, we can really advance that conversation and continue to align industry into a common direction and approach that can support that harmonised view for UAM.

And we know from traditional aviation going back over decades that the industry itself is most successful when it's harmonised when it works together. Because it is an international business, aviation crosses borders every few seconds within Europe. So it makes absolute sense that we take that principle, roll it over into any new technology, such as eVTOL that comes in, doesn't it?

Absolutely. And I would also say that the work that Eve has conducted globally, has helped us understand that though, there are unique challenges from country to country and region to region where these challenges come from the source of these challenges have a lot of commonalities to them. So it is possible and very feasible to create an approach that can be applied globally. And I think the concepts that we develop as part of this work are ones that we have continued to build on through all those bodies of work, including the concept of operations that Eve formerly with Embraer X developed with Air Services Australia, Australia's air navigation service provider, as well as recent work that we've done in Rio with a simulation and concept of operations that was developed there, a work we did with Miami Dade County, in the United States, as well as the concept of operations that we've been working on with the Civil Aviation Bureau of Japan. So this kind of global approach to understanding we're really seeing that these approaches that we're taking can be effective, regardless of region, when we take into consideration the unique challenges that each country face.

Makes absolute sense. So thank you, Brenden, absolutely brilliant there to catch up with you and get the update on CONOPS from the Eve project. And thank you very much for your time today.

Oh, it's my pleasure, Jonathan, thank you very much for having me. Appreciate it.

So thank you very much for listening, everybody. Hope you enjoyed that. And there'll be more innovation podcasts on the On Air podcast here for you to catch up with as well. Don't forget our other new ones as well that might be of interest, especially the drones one if you're in that environment. If there's anything else that you'd like us to cover in this podcast, then drop us a line you can get to us at onair@caa.co.uk Thank you for listening. Remember to follow us in all the places you normally get your podcasts and we'll see you next time. Thank you.

Thanks for listening. This is CAA On Air