The Republic of Korea has launched a comprehensive urban air mobility (UAM) demonstration project along the Han River as part of the national K-UAM initiative. The intention is to establish a vertiport and “usher in an era of urban air traffic”.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) signed a memorandum of understanding with Goyang Special City on March 6 and expects the construction of takeoff and landing fields to begin this year.
MOLIT says the project will “comprehensively verify the safety of operation and the operational system in urban environments”. Beyond establishing a takeoff and landing pad, the project will also build additional infrastructure for future pilot projects and commercialisation. Construction of commercial infrastructure, including passenger terminals and hangars, is expected to begin in stages by 2027.
The site size is expected to be 15,085㎡ with one takeoff and landing pad, two aprons and 1,836㎡ for passenger terminals, hangars and other buildings.
“This base is not simply a passenger terminal; it will be established as a comprehensive demonstration base for urban aviation in preparation for the commercialization of K-UAM,” MOLIT said. “The plan is to integrate passenger processing, ground handling systems, aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) environments, flight control and facility management systems to verify operational procedures and safety standards under conditions similar to actual operations.”
The base is the first to be built in accordance with the ‘Vertiport Design Standard’ (scheduled to be established later this month). The standard will apply not only to physical facilities such as takeoff and landing pads and terminals, but also to system and operational standards for implementing a real-world commercial operation environment, establishing it as a standard model for Korean vertiports.
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Image: Concept image of the new vertiport (MOLIT)
Note: This news story has been created with the assistance of translation software