Urban air mobility community noise test planning

Abstract

The term “advanced air mobility” has been adopted by NASA to describe safe, sustainable, affordable, and accessible aviation for transformational local and intraregional missions. By this definition, advanced air mobility includes both “rural” and “urban” applications including cargo and passenger transport missions, and other aerial missions (e.g., infrastructure inspection). There will be a range of aircraft types performing such missions, including small and medium unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) aircraft, and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Urban air mobility (UAM) is a challenging use case for transporting cargo and passengers in an urban environment and is a new opportunity for aviation that could revolutionize the transportation system. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Noise Division of the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Environment and Energy have initiated discussions for planning UAM community noise test(s) at the end of this decade. This presentation discusses the test goals, candidate test objectives, and some of the activities needed in preparation for the test(s). It also draws distinctions between the type of study envisioned (observational versus staged) and between it and recent and planned studies on large fixed-wing transports and commercial supersonic transports.