Innovative Air Mobility represents one of the most immediate challenges
Air mobility in urban and regional environments is gaining strength in Spain thanks to some of the most relevant agents in the sector, who have agreed to promote the first national cluster in the field of Innovative Air Mobility to support the new era of air mobility for passenger and cargo transport with vertical take-off and landing electric vehicles. Thus, Ineco - the public engineering under the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda; the Technological Institute of Galicia (ITG) - National Technological Center international reference in UAS and U-space - and Expodrónica - the international forum on drones of reference in Europe -, together with the technological company NTT DATA and the firm Pinsent Masons, have reached a collaboration agreement that will allow the creation of SIAM (Spain Innovative Air Mobility), the first national Cluster dedicated to Innovative Air Mobility, which will be presented during the celebration of Expodrónica from September 25th to 28th.
Innovative Air Mobility is one of the most immediate challenges for the development of air mobility. The transport of goods and passengers in cities, as well as the provision of infrastructures that allow the operation of autonomous vehicles in the urban environment represent a unique opportunity.Innovation and business development associated with flight operators, software developers, UAV and eVTOL manufacturers, the construction of vertiports, as well as the participation of all those agents dedicated to airspace safety and its regulation, will have in the SIAM Cluster a nexus of connection that will give a definitive boost to the sector.
Objectives
The promoters of the Cluster also share the objective of representing the needs of the industry before Spanish and European governmental bodies, as well as promoting technological development through collaboration between research centers, the productive fabric, companies in the sector and public administrations.
This cluster is the materialization of one of the central elements of the DEIA Initiative (Development of the Ecosystem for the Promotion of Aeromobility), promoted by the technology consultancy NTT DATA and the law firm Pinsent Masons, which envisaged the constitution of an aeromobility hub from which to achieve collaboration between the different competent administrations and companies in the sector in order to make joint proposals to resolve the different obstacles detected in the development of aeromobility, focusing especially on those projects considered to be of special interest for aeromobility (PIAs).
The aerospace sector in Spain, which accounts for 1.2% of GDP (5.4% if we consider industrial GDP) and ranks fifth in Europe, is strategically interested in the urban air mobility revolution.This will make it possible to respond to the challenges facing today's and tomorrow's cities in order to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants.We are witnessing the first steps of a new business sector with a long way to go. A path that involves defining and establishing the frameworks for fields of action such as operations, regulations, business models and identification of the roles of the various stakeholders. To this end, innovation and research play a vital role in the process towards the consolidation of a more sustainable urban air mobility capable of proposing useful solutions to congestion in cities.
