Air taxis are coming to our cities, but a new study warns regulations will need to address dangerous wind gusts around city buildings and other urban infrastructure.
The air taxi market is almost ready for take off, with companies such as Boeing, Hyundai, Airbus and Toyota building fleets to have commuters flitting through the sky. Europe and the US have both drafted new rules to pave the way for air taxis to begin operations within the decade, with Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to follow suit.
Increasingly sophisticated studies over recent years, including a recent paper by RMIT University’s Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) Research Team, have measured how sudden wind gusts form around city buildings and destabilise aircraft.
Lead researcher and aerospace engineer, Dr Abdulghani Mohamed, who’s studied wind gust dynamics for over a decade, says this aspect needs to be adequately addressed by regulation in Australia and overseas before we fill our city skies with air taxis and other drones.
Strong wind gusts form around city buildings
Low-flying aircraft are at risk from wind gusts because they land and take off at low speed, explained Mohamed, with the RMIT research revealing sudden wind gusts can pose significant safety challenges for air taxis and drones in under a second.
As a result, air taxis and drones will need more power for landing or taking off in cities compared with an airport or an open space, he explained.
“These aircraft need powerful motors that can rapidly change the thrust generated by the propellers to rapidly force the vehicle back on-course, a process which requires more energy,” said Mohamed, from the School of Engineering.
