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The scalability of the current air traffic control system, the availability of aviation ground infrastructure, and the acceptability of aircraft noise to local communities have been identified as three key operational constraints that may limit the implementation or growth of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) systems. This paper identifies the primary mechanisms through which each constraint emerges to limit the number of UAM operations in an area (i.e. the scale of the service). Technical, ecosystem, or operational factors that influence each of the mechanisms are also identified. Interdependencies between the constraints are shown. Potential approaches to reduce constraint severity through adjustments to the mechanisms are introduced. Finally, an effort is made to characterize the severity of each operational constraint as a function of the density of UAM operations in a region of interest. To this end, a measure of severity is proposed for each constraint. This measure is used to notionally display how the severity of the constraint responds to UAM scaling, and to identify scenarios where efforts to relieve the constraint are most effective. The overall purpose of this paper is to provide an abstraction of the workings of the key UAM operational constraints so that researchers, developers, and practitioners may guide their efforts to mitigation pathways that are most likely to increase achievable UAM system scale. U 2 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics perceive to degrade their quality of life and enjoyment of their property. Local governments may use zoning or building codes to limit or prohibit aviation infrastructure development or operations. Finally, congressional representatives may compel the FAA to change ATC procedures to reduce noise, as was the case in the Los Angeles Residential Helicopter Noise Relief Act of 2013 [4]. While community acceptance of UAM activities may be influenced by numerous factors including privacy, viewshed, pollution, safety, and equity, aircraft noise has dominated recent public discourse and action and represents a key constraint for UAM operations. However, the successful implementation of helicopter-based UAM operations in São Paulo, as well as the large private and charter helicopter operations in Moscow and Mumbai, indicate that local values and expectations significantly influence the actual severity of this constraint. U.S. and European communities may exhibit increased sensitivity to aircraft noise compared to other potential UAM markets.These three operating constraints are of keen interest to researchers, potential operators, and transportation planners as they dictate if a UAM system may serve a few hundred customers per day or tens of thousands of customers per day. The contribution of this research is significant because it will support the estimation of achievable UAM system scale based upon local factors and the ecosystem of the city in which it is implemented. Furthermore, this work may support the evaluation of how potential design and operating decisi...

This paper investigated three key operational constraints anticipated to impact On-Demand Mobility for Aviation markets in the Los Angeles basin including: community acceptance issues resulting from aircraft noise, the availability of takeoff and landing areas, and the scalability of operations under Air Traffic Control. The analysis provided insight into the nature of each of these constraints and potential approaches to their mitigation. First, existing ground infrastructure in Los Angeles that may support ODM Aviation operations was identified. A variety of proposed techniques to increase the geographic distribution and throughput capacity of ODM Aviation infrastructure were also evaluated. Second, ASDE-X radar tracking data from the Los Angeles International Airport was reviewed to identify areas where it may be feasible to route future ODM operations due to the low volume of conventional operations. Potential opportunities and risks associated with supplementing air traffic control through novel low-altitude management concepts such as NASA's Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) program were also investigated. Finally, the influence of aircraft noise on local communities' acceptance of aircraft operations was discussed. Various pathways through which communities may limit or prohibit aircraft operations were reviewed.

This study develops an Integer Programming (IP) approach to analytically estimate vertiport capacity envelopes. The approach is used to determine the sensitivity of vertiport capacity to the number and layout of touchdown and liftoff pads, taxiways, gates, and parking pads (i.e. the vertiport topology). The study also assesses the sensitivity of vertiport capacity to operational parameters including taxi time, turnaround time, pre-staged aircraft, and approach/departure procedure independence, among others. Findings indicate the importance of balancing the number of touchdown and liftoff pads with the number of gates to achieve maximum aircraft throughput per vertiport footprint. Furthermore, simultaneous paired arrivals or departures provide significant throughput gains without the need for fully independent approach and departure procedures. The methodology and findings introduced in this paper support the development of concepts of operation to maximize throughput for a given vertiport footprint and demand scenario. While throughput has been extensively researched for fixed-wing operations, little research has been dedicated to the operation of infrastructure for Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. The emergence of new VTOL aircraft to conduct a potentially large number of urban air mobility operations creates a need to better understand the operation and throughput capacity of vertiports, especially in space constrained inner-city locations. This paper reviews numerous existing heliport designs to derive four topology classes of vertiport layouts. The IP formulation of vertiport operations is readily adapted to represent the infrastructure and operations of these layouts.

On-Demand Mobility (ODM) for Aviation is an emerging concept that proposes to provide aircraft-based, point-to-point transportation to consumers within a metropolitan area. This paper explicitly identified key operational constraints facing ODM Aviation networks and assessed how new vehicles and technologies could mitigate or reduce the severity of these constraints. An exploratory case study was developed to evaluate hypothetical ODM Aviation services in Los Angeles and the greater Southern California region. Promising early adopter markets were identified based upon current commuting and wealth patterns. A concept of operations (ConOps) was proposed for twelve reference missions that serviced a representative subset of these markets. Review of the reference missions provided a holistic impression of the potential implementation challenges facing an ODM Aviation network in a United States metropolitan region. Five key operational constraints were identified that may inhibit the near or far-term implementation of ODM Aviation operations. The constraints identified include: aircraft noise and community acceptance, the availability of ground infrastructure, aircraft interaction with air traffic control, community access to takeoff and landing areas, and the flight density achievable in uncontrolled airspace. Furthermore, three issues were identified including electric aircraft operating standards and certifications, allweather operational capabilities, and ODM aircraft interaction with unmanned aircraft systems.