CORUS-XUAM
Concept of operations for european u-space services – extension for urban air mobility

The CORUS-XUAM project proposes to demonstrate U-space solutions to support Urban Air Mobility (UAM) flight operations and develop the necessary operational procedures and requirements, considering safety, efficiency and social acceptability. The consortium is an extension of the CORUS Consortium, who delivered the SJU U-space Concept of Operations in September 2019, with the addition of UAM competencies.

The project will involve extensive consultation with the U-space stakeholders. The project will update the U-space ConOps, addressing the integration of drones into airspaces currently used by manned aircraft (Very Low Level and above), refining definitions of services and identifying new U3/U4 services. The theoretical part of the project will constitute a small part of the overall effort of the project, the majority being six demonstrations in different countries. Overlaid on these demonstrations, a validation activity will examine the effectiveness of the proposed U-space procedures and services, the main results being fed back into the revised ConOps by the end of the project.

The demonstrations will involve flights by passenger-carrying vehicles, as well as large and small UAS, some with vertical take-off, some conventional, all of them being electric. They will occur in urban, suburban and rural areas, in controlled (airports, harbours) and uncontrolled airspaces. They will involve different missions such as passenger transport, logistics, delivery, emergency response and surveillance. The demonstrations will use different U-space deployment architectures and explore technology’s state of the art. They will consider coordination and transfer between ATC and U-space, including interaction with human ATCOs and pilots. The demonstrations will combine flights by test vehicles with other traffic, and (virtually) transpose flight into the CTRs of major airports. Vertiport processes and procedures, separation, and data services will also be demonstrated.