Skyports Infrastructure reports it has reached operational completion of its vertiport at Bicester Motion, Oxfordshire, one of the UK’s first testing grounds and hubs for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flights.
Skyports previewed the completed facility at an inaugural event, hosting partners of the Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium, said the company ina press release of today. During the event, attendees were given demonstrations of vertiport operations, including passenger processing, vertiport automation systems for aircraft and passengers, Skyports’ proprietary Remote Management & Scheduling System (RMSS) and situational awareness tools (such as weather sensors and real-time aircraft tracking) – ensuring operational safety and providing a radical rethinking of the passenger journey at vertiports.
The vertiport is a key output of the Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium, a UKRI Future Flight Challenge project which is demonstrating the feasibility of an AAM ecosystem in the UK. The vertiport will be a facility for testing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) ground infrastructure and flight operations and will serve as a network node and living lab for the Consortium’s wider testing programme and public and stakeholder engagement, including demonstration flights of Vertical Aerospace’s VX4 prototype.
Skyports’ new vertiport at Bicester Motion includes:
- A compact terminal, constructed on a plot of 0.42 acres (0.17 hectares), to showcase vertiport infrastructure’s efficient nature and highlight the capacity for seamless integration into urban landscapes, where space is at a premium, and facilitate fast passenger throughput.
- Passenger processing facilities which will include passenger weight data collection and weight balance optimisation, passenger identity validation, verification and screening. The addition of a dedicated passenger lounge will demonstrate a comprehensive customer experience.
- An operations room equipped with Skyports’ suite of Vertiport Automation System (VAS) technology, featuring a bespoke resource management and scheduling operations dashboard, enabling high aircraft throughput compatible with all operators.
- A situational awareness module to provide visualisation tools for comprehensive airspace, weather, and vertiport perimeter monitoring.
(Images: Skyports Infrastructure)
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Skyports shares preview of operationally complete vertiport at Bicester Motion