Vehicle Design and Optimization Model for Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility refers to an envisaged air taxi service, using small, autonomous, vertical-takeoff-and-landing, battery-powered electric aircraft. A conceptual design and optimization tool for urban air mobility, including vehicle, mission, and cost models, is presented in this paper. The tool uses geometric programming, a class of optimization problems with extremely fast solve times and for which global optimality is guaranteed. The tool is used to conduct a study of urban air mobility from a vehicle design perspective. Vehicle configurations with a higher lift-to-drag ratio, but a higher disk loading, generally weigh less and cost less to operate. The battery and the pilot are identified as the two main cost drivers; strategies for reducing these two costs are discussed. A case study is conducted on New York City airport transfers; trip times and costs are compared with those of current helicopter air taxi operations and with car ride-sharing. Sensitivity analyses are presented with respect to reserve requirements, mission range, and battery energy density. A battery energy density of is shown to be a critical enabling value for urban air mobility.