The city of Ingolstadt is a pioneer in researching the urban mobility of tomorrow. Within the framework of the project “Urban Air Mobility” (UAM) supported by the European Commission, the use of electronic aircraft is being researched in practical studies. The city has now presented a demonstration model of an aircraft on Ingolstadt’s town hall square for the first time. BFFT aeromotive was also involved in the unveiling and the subsequent network meeting as a partner of the UAM initiative.
As a world premiere, the city of Ingolstadt announced the presentation of the demonstrator called ”CityAirbus”. The special features of the Airbus model equipped with a total of eight rotators were presented in detail by Wolfgang Schoder, CEO of Airbus Helicopters. The subsequent panel discussion was attended by the Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer and the Minister of State Dorothee Bär (Federal Government Commissioner for Digitilization) as well as regional politicians such as Reinhard Brandl, Member of the Bundestag and Christian Lösl, Lord Mayor of Ingolstadt. All participants underlined the chances of the city of Ingolstadt to establish itself as an innovation location in this field by developing possible fields of application in urban mobility.
Following the unveiling of the demonstrator, the approximately 50 partners from industry and research exchanged their views on the further steps in the UAM project at the third network meeting. The first test flights of the aircraft are planned for the next few months. The findings will be incorporated into the development of a prototype. BFFT aeromotive will contribute its many years of experience in the aviation industry in the infrastructure sector to the UAM project.