The Global Urban Air Summit, taking place this September in Farnborough, U.K., on the site of the biennial Airshow, is the first time industry will come together with regulators here to explore next-generation air travel.
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Speakers from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will join representatives from industry behemoths including NASA, Uber, Airbus and Boeing, alongside innovators such as Vertical Aerospace and GoFly, to determine how technology will create the biggest shift in air travel for a generation.
Speaking about the Summit, Amanda Stainer, Farnborough International’s chief commercial and partnerships officer, explained: “We have always sought to ensure that the Farnborough International Airshow serves as a platform for aerospace innovation and now we are broadening our reach to create and deliver a year-round program of events. It’s entirely fitting that our first is focused on future technology.
“The Global Urban Air Summit will be a content-rich conference which involves industry, government, regulators, academia and finance in a way that has never been done before. We’re confident it will be a pivotal event for the industry.”
The conference will explore the urban air mobility (UAM) global outlook and how close we are to achieving air transportation with electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, eVTOL technology and infrastructure, the operational environment, and exploring technology uses beyond passenger travel with a focus on logistics across defense as well as commerce.
Speaking about the Global Urban Air Summit, François Sillion, Uber’s director of Advanced Technologies Centre in Paris, who will give a keynote on aerial ridesharing, said: “Uber’s mission is to ignite opportunity by helping the world move. In the 10 years since Uber’s launch, we’ve transformed how cities, freight and food travel, and now we’re looking toward the skies. We are excited to be joining other industry leaders at this summit and helping shape the conversation on the future of on-demand aerial ridesharing.”
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Gwen Lighter, CEO and founder of GoFly is to host a session on innovation. Lighter leads a team of more than 3,500 innovators from over 100 countries creating a multitude of personal flying devices, with support from Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and in excess of 20 aerospace partners. She said: “There has been incredible investment and interest in the burgeoning urban mobility industry, and we are excited to be at the heart of it.
“The future of transportation will be aerial, and in the next few years we will start to see new technology being put to the test in building the next generation of mobility devices.”
The Global Urban Air Summit is scheduled for Sept. 3 and 4. For more details and to register, click here.
Editor’s Note: Vertical Magazine and our sister publication eVTOL.com are media partners for the Global Urban Air Summit. Visit eVTOL.com for more coverage of eVTOL aircraft and urban air mobility.
