Bridenstine Discusses Future of UAM Written 28 July 2020
Artist’s rendition of an Urban Air Mobility environment | NASA
Aviation International News reports that during the EAA Spirit of Aviation virtual event held last week, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine discussed how the agency views the future of urban air mobility (UAM). Bridenstine said that current air traffic infrastructure “is not going to be able to manage” UAM, with “thousands of unmanned aerial systems operating [at] 400 feet and below and each of those...systems doing dozens of missions in a given day. That’s a very congested airspace. So what you’re looking for here is the development of an autonomous system.” He “said NASA’s continuing investment in and advancing of ‘leap-ahead’ technologies such as UAM, more fuel-efficient propulsion, advanced aerodynamics, and low-boom supersonic research were essential components for keeping ‘American aeronautics preeminent in the world’ and maintaining a dominant share of the aviation ‘export market that we, of course, had been leading for so many decades.’”
Full Story (Aviation International News)