UMILES Next and TECNALIA take to the skies again

UMILES Next and TECNALIA take to the skies again, over Spain for the first time, with their eVTOL Concept Integrity prototype

• In test flights at the ATLAS Test Flight Centre, the automatic flight control and autonomous take-off and landing systems, the Detect and Avoid technology and flight manoeuvres were tested.
• The flight was part of the USPACE4UAM project, the European consortium for the safe integration of manned and unmanned vehicle operations in urban environments, in which companies such as HONEYWELL, the project leader, Vertical Aerospace, CATEC and ENAIRE, among others, are participating.
• Alongside the air taxi, other unmanned vehicles also flew in different layers in order to demonstrate the feasibility of this new type of "traffic" in urban areas in the near future.

Jaen, 26th October 2022. The UMILES Next eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle), Concept Integrity, equipped with the FlyFree technology developed by the TECNALIA research centre, has successfully flown over the skies of Jaen today. Following the recent flight in Toulouse, this was the first free flight completed by the aircraft in Spain, as part of USPACE4UAM project, the European consortium for the safe integration of manned and unmanned vehicle operations in urban environments.

The test flights took place this morning at the ATLAS Test Flight Centre in Villacarrillo (Jaen), which undertakes the testing of unmanned aircraft technologies and systems or light and tactical remotely piloted systems. These flights allow UMILES Next and TECNALIA to continue testing their eVTOL prototype, paving the way for the future integration of the air taxi into urban space.

This is a major step towards the integration of this type of aircraft in airspace, as defined by the European USPACE4UAM project, which seeks to validate urban air traffic management with unmanned aircraft. For this purpose, the Concept Integrity was flanked by other unmanned aircraft in different layers in order to demonstrate the feasibility of this new type of traffic in urban areas in the near future. The project involves companies such as HONEYWELL, the project leader, Vertical Aerospace, CATEC and ENAIRE.

The mobility of the future aims to be increasingly smart and sustainable. New systems and developments will mean that alternative transport solutions will be available in increasingly crowded cities. UMILES Next and TECNALIA have their sights set on this with their air and ground-based urban mobility solutions, which are expected to become a real alternative by around 2028.

This was the first time that the Concept Integrity prototype had flown in open air space over Spain, but it is its second free flight, as it successfully took to the skies over Toulouse last September as part of the initiative led by the TindAIR project, which rolls out large-scale demonstrations of urban air mobility to validate air traffic management in urban areas with unmanned aircraft. Lugo will be the next stop.

About USPACE4UAM

Uspace4UAM (Urban Space for Urban Air Mobility) builds on the results of the CORUS project and the operational and commercial experience already gathered in drone operational service implementation in Europe. It studies safety cases and their impact on system requirements, and analyses how regulation and standardisation can be established to help build sustainable business cases for the future, while operating safely in a multi-modal transport network.

This project is set to deliver results that are of real interest for the future of this up and coming business in Europe, helping to make a real impact on the market in the coming years. As a way of ensuring delivery of these ambitious results, the USPACE4UAM project has been set up to be a combination of solution development and implementation, and is set to validate a range of commercial applications and services for fully autonomous drones and air taxis.

About UMILES Next

UMILES Next is the UMILES Group company focused on developing advanced air and ground mobility solutions. It is a pioneer in offering operators the innovative capacity to deal safely and sustainably with passenger and freight transport thanks to the synergies of proprietary technology. It is a path on which UMILES Next is working with TECNALIA, its main technological partner, in order to lead air and land mobility, with the aim of competing at an international level with exclusively national capital and technology.

About TECNALIA

TECNALIA is the largest applied research and technological development centre in Spain, a European benchmark and member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance. TECNALIA works with companies and institutions to increase their competitiveness, improve quality of life of people and achieve sustainable growth. This is possible thanks to people who are passionate about technology and committed to building a better society. Its main scopes of action are: digital transformation, smart manufacturing, energy transition, sustainable mobility, urban ecosystem, and personalised health.