Flying cars, a future not very distant: urban air mobility in the center of the debate

More than a hundred years ago that the human being thinks of Flying cars. It seems to be a distant future, but it is not. Aerial vehicles are getting closer.

When we think of the reality of transport in the Argentine Republic it seems to be a farther activity, but the truth is that these vehicles have already begun their operation in different places on the planet.

As always happened, technologies are always one step ahead of regulations. But this time the modifications introduced in the Bases Law on the feasibility of non -manned aircraft flight has given the initial kick for the activity.

What do we talk about when we talk about aerial taxis? It seems that we refer to helicopters. But the truth is that The future of urban mobility is in heaven.

The drones gave the initial kick, but this new class of vehicles (Evtols) have the capacity to transport passengers in short distances and mainly in urban nuclei.

But like any new activity, it requires social acceptance. Imagine being able to fly to our work or home. Without interruptions, without street cuts a simple flight to optimize one of the most precious goods, our time.

Let’s see that we talk in three simple concepts: Evtol, as operated and regulatory needs.

¿What are the evtols? They are electric flying vehicles with the ability to transport passengers and merchandise on reduced journeys, designed for cities. These vehicles can be manned or not. A true air taxi or a flying car.

This aerial vehicle model leads us to think about the concept of Urban air mobility. That futuristic concept that we see in the films and that today begins to be a reality in some places on the planet.

But can these vehicles fly freely on us? Let us think of heaven as a finite resource, because air traffic requires a certain order to avoid air collisions.

The European Union has been working hard on the concept of urban air mobility and Evtols. The graph of the projections on how since how much is expected that these vehicles fly is graphically sufficiently to show the sky as a finite resource.

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In this first graph we see the planned flight height, to avoid collisions with another kind of aircraft.

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In this second graph, we see that vehicles are not expected to fly freely, but on default routes operated and monitored by a distance operator.

But we also see in these graphs the introduction of a new figure. The VERTIPORTS presented in the graph and as indicated by its name are vertical airports where these vehicles can anodize.

While it seems a distant reality for Argentina, the truth is that these vehicles They are already marketed And they already fly mainly in China.

Argentina has taken an important step by modifying the Aeronautical Code in the Law, allowing the operation of unmanned aircraft. However, the challenge occurs in the debate of urban air mobility and its social acceptance. The second challenge is regulatory not only in the flight operation, but also in the compatibility of landing structures internationally.

The operation of these vehicles is not a distant reality, preparing the necessary regulatory framework is necessary at the local level so that the technologies are not always ahead of the regulations.

By Diego R. González (lawyer and president of Wala) and Santiago Juan Manuel Herrera (Doctor of Administrative Law from the University of Buenos Aires, Master in Administrative Law from the Universidad Austral and Transport and Ports Specialist).