Are We Ready to Weather Urban Air Mobility (UAM)?

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a system for passenger and air cargo transportation within an urban area. It includes small package delivery and other urban unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and supports a mix of onboard piloted, ground-piloted and increasingly autonomous operations. UAM is developing rapidly due to advances in technology. A number of aerospace and vehicle manufacturers are developing automated aerial vehicle and piloted aerial vehicle prototypes, and pilot projects are underway in Dubai and planned for Dallas and Los Angeles in the early 2020s. The UAM market is broad and includes potential applications such as air taxi, personal commuting, air ambulance, and law enforcement. Due to the recent emergence of this technology, there has been little research into the potentially significant weather impacts on safety, cost, and efficiency of UAM operations and vehicles.

Conducted as part of a UAM market assessment, this research identifies potential key weather barriers to UAM due to a variety of weather conditions and public perception of flying in adverse weather. To characterize challenging weather conditions, we generated a comprehensive seasonal and diurnal climatology based on historical observations across anticipated UAM operational altitudes (surface – 5000 ft AGL) at ten focus urban areas in the United States. We evaluated weather related societal barriers to UAM through a large general population survey where respondents were asked about their views regarding flying in a UAM vehicle amid various adverse weather conditions. The need for higher resolution weather observations and forecasts will also be discussed, with a focus on how weather data available from road weather applications could be used and the value to the overall transportation system of equipping UAM and drones with weather sensors.