Airbus has said it will expand its ondemand helicopter service Voom, now operational in São Paulo and Mexico City, in other megacities in 2019. Voom is part of an Airbus unit called Urban Air Mobility (UAM), launched by the company in June 2018 to develop partnerships and explore technologies that will make urban air mobility a reality. Eduardo Dominguez Puerta, Head of UAM at Airbus, said the company is “very active in strengthening contacts with cities and partners” to expand Voom, which allows people in megacities to book a helicopter on a shared basis via a mobile app. Airbus did not disclose the identities of the other cities where it is planning to launch Voom.
Dominguez Puerta added that Airbus UAM is also continuing to develop and test its two existing electric vertical take-of and landing (eVTOL) demonstrator vehicles, Vahana and CityAirbus, which he said, “will allow us to deine a path for the future generation of vehicles”. Airbus UAM is also researching cargo delivery in an urban environment using UAVs on a project called Skyways and working to develop future regulations to help safely integrate eVTOL platforms into the air traffic control network. Dominguez Puerta said: “We’re moving ahead full speed to continue developing the technologies that we need to realise our vision with UAM.” Mark Broadbent
