The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) is gearing up for its sixth workshop on advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure, taking place from Sept. 20 to 22, in Dayton, Ohio, at the Marriott at the University of Dayton.
“The overall theme for this year’s two-day infrastructure workshop will be centered around the recently published NASA whitepaper: Advanced Air Mobility Vertiport Considerations: A List and Overview,” said Rex Alexander, VFS infrastructure adviser.
The whitepaper, which is a direct product of NASA’s AAM Ecosystem Working Groups (AEWGs) program, outlines more than 500 different considerations for evaluating and determining vertiport site selection, developed and compiled by nearly a hundred subject matter experts.
Unique to this year’s workshop, VFS will be conducting six attendee breakout brainstorming sessions on the first day of the event. These high intensity, fast-paced audience participation sessions, led by industry leaders and subject matter experts, are designed to perform a deep dive into six critical areas. This includes infrastructure cybersecurity, equity considerations, vertiport configuration, safety management systems, vertiport architectural and engineering programming, and vertiport airspace.
On the second day of the event, attendees will be given a full back-brief on each of the six brainstorming sessions from session leaders.
“It is our hope, based on the results from the Day 1 brainstorming sessions, to provide insight and guidance as to what our priorities for AAM infrastructure need to be and where research dollars should to be directed going forward,” Alexander said.
The workshop will also include several panel discussions on battery charging infrastructure, local perspectives, international perspectives, and hydrogen infrastructure at airports and vertiports.
VFS will host a tour of the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport on the third day of the event. The tour will include the Beta Technologies portable vertiport and simulator, FlyOhio Community Vertiport Challenge, the Ohio unmanned Aircraft Systems Center, the Agility Prime Program display, and the Moog SureFly eVTOL aircraft.
According to Alexander, the target audience for the workshop is fairly broad but also heavily geared toward federal, state and local decision-makers who will be responsible for the development of AAM infrastructure policies, regulations, ordinances and codes. This includes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), state departments of transportation, local planning and zoning commissions, and city transportation heads.
VFS is the world’s only technical society dedicated to advancing helicopters and other rotorcraft, drones, eVTOL and other AAM aircraft, and related technologies. As a global leader in eVTOL for nearly a decade, VFS recognized eVTOL infrastructure as a defining challenge in 2019, and has provided foundational support in defining requirements and promoting understanding of the key infrastructure challenges and means to address them.
For more information or to register for the workshop, visit the event website.
