ABSTRACT
Aviation as an industry is at the forefront of a broad set of societal challenges confronting humanity. The ongoing and deepening climate catastrophe, and its consequences in the form of ecological destruction, global insecurity, increased risk of pandemics, and other significant challenges, has urged the sector to take seriously commitments to decarbonisation, Net Zero, and transitions towards ‘greener’ alternative futures. At the same time, the transportation of people, goods, and services faces unprecedented demand (UKRI 2024), with commercial passenger-travel reportedly reaching pre-COVID-19 levels. Against this backdrop, ‘Advanced Air Mobility’ (AAM) technologies promise to deliver solutions to address such challenges. This ‘third revolution’ in aviation focusses on testing, developing, and integrating technologies, systems, and infrastructures that offer sustainable and responsible solutions to some of the most critical issues of our time. A set of relatively new classes of aircraft that includes drones, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs) vehicles, as well as alternatively fuelled (i.e., electric, hydrogen, hybrid) regional aircraft, are innovations some consider to be a sustainable pathway towards minimising the environmental impacts of traditional aviation industries. Not only do these aircraft have the potential to transform how we connect people, transport goods, and deliver services, but changes to the aviation system being imagined could also revolutionise the everyday ways in which we address these pivotal existential crises.
