SAE Update - October 2023 - 8

TECH FOCUS:
UrBAN MOBiliTy/UAM
Urban Air Mobility
A dream not so trivial
more schedule flexibility, a
simpler infrastructure which
could use what already exists,
and autonomy.
But that is only one aspect of
what lies ahead: what about
services (humanitarian or not)
which could use more adaptable
vehicles depending on the
circumstances: from wildfires to
flooded areas to emergency care
in traffic accidents, in or outside
the city?
These and more have been the
scenarios scientists, engineers
and visionaries have been
tackling for years.
Like with commercial aircraft,
progress has been slow but has
never stopped. Each new
iteration has to be tested
multiple times, and then tested
again. Safety is non-negotiable.
And flying is no walk in the
park... (no pun intended).
Yet, a new reality is taking
shape little by little. There is light
at the end of the tunnel, and the
sky could be the limit.
More and more, we see that
vehicles for urban air mobility
are becoming something we can
actually talk about without
sounding like aliens in disguise.
SAE EDGE Research Reports
have been released in the past
8
October 2023
Three development stages of flying cars.
Unsettled Topics Concerning Flying Cars for
Urban Air Mobility
Flying cars-as a new type of vehicle for urban air
mobility (UAM)-have become an important
development trend for the transborder integration of
automotive and aeronautical technologies and
industries. This article introduces the 100-year history
of flying cars, examines the current research status for
UAM air buses and air taxis, and discusses the future
development trend of intelligent transportation and
air-to-land amphibious vehicles.
Unsettled Topics Concerning Flying Cars for Urban
Air Mobility identifies the major bottlenecks and
impediments confronting the development of flying
cars, such as high-power-density electric propulsion,
high-lift-to-drag ratio and lightweight body
structures, and low-altitude intelligent flight.
Furthermore, it proposes three phased goals and
visions for the development of flying cars in China,
suggesting the development of a flying vehicle
UPDATE
four years bringing home a lot of questions and some
very good answers when it comes to real possible
products and to some ideas that could be too far out
for this decade.
Here are some examples:
Chesky/Shutterstock.com;
Costazzurra/Shutterstock.com;
Macrovector/Shutterstock.com
https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/epr2021011/ https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/epr2021011/
SAE Update - October 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAE Update - October 2023
