TECHNOLOGY
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UDAN AND URBAN AIR MOBILITY – CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES IN INDIA
Traffic congestion worldwide is a recurring/ubiquitous
phenomenon that reduces productivity, increases
pollution from stranded or slow-moving vehicles, and
impacts the health of travellers through increased stress
levels. Additionally, due to inadequacies in ground
transportation infrastructure in many densely populated
cities around the world, especially in emerging markets
like India, alternate modes of transport for better
connectivity are of paramount need with the inherent
conditions that they are widespread and affordable. In
this context, short-haul air transport finds a place with
two important segments; one that focuses on Urban
Air Mobility (UAM) primarily in large metropolitan cities
using electrified Vertical Take Off
and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles
and the second that focuses
more on inter-city commute by
operationalizing underused/
unused airports using fixed wing
aircraft.
UDAN-RCS Scheme of
Government of India
In June 2016, the Ministry of Civil
Aviation (MoCA), Government of
India (GOI), released the National
Civil Aviation Policy 2016 (NCAP
40 JUNE 2021
2016) including UDAN-RCS, where UDAN (Ude Desh ka
Aam Naagrik) is a regional airport development program
with Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) to enhance
regional air connectivity across the country through
fiscal support and infrastructure development. The
primary objective of UDAN scheme is to operationalize
approximately 425 unserved and underserved regional
airports with regular scheduled and give the common
citizen an opportunity to fly through affordable and
widespread air travel (Ref [1], [2]). The UDAN scheme
had two components, with the first component to
develop new airports and enhance the existing regional
airports and achieve the target of almost doubling the
Fig 1. eVTOL Companies (Ref [4])
MOBILITY ENGINEERING
Fig 2. UAM Key Components (Ref [4])
number of operational airports by 2018. The second
component had the objective of adding several hundred
financially viable, capped-airfare, new regional flight
routes to connect more than 100 underserved and
unserved airports in smaller towns with each other and
also to improve connectivity with larger cities/airports
nearby through the creation of “Viability Gap Funding
(VGF)” with contributions from both GOI and State
Governments (Ref[2]). MoCA subsequently included
air routes along India’s vast coastline to connect them
through amphibian seaplanes and helicopters with
successful launches from Statue of Unity in Kevadia to
Sabarmati in Gujarat and from Kollam to Kochi in Kerala.
In August 2020, MoCA approved 78 additional routes to
be awarded under the 4th round of UDAN-RCS with focus
on boosting connectivity in the North East, hilly states,
and islands (Ref [3]).
Urban Air Mobility (UAM)
The increasing urbanization in many cities across the
world has increased traffic congestion and pollution
levels, leading to many hours of lost productivity
and impact on the health of the residents, ultimately
affecting the economic growth of the
country. Urban Air Mobility (UAM)
is a relatively new concept aimed
at offering safe and efficient air
traffic operations in a metropolitan
area for manned and unmanned
aircraft systems (Ref [4]). Over the
last few years, UAM has evolved
into a disruptive transportation
mode, ready to offer an alternative
to existing ground transportation,
especially in areas where
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TECHNOLOGY
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infrastructure is found wanting.
UAM has been accumulating new
use cases to offer alternative air
transport in emergency services,
eCommerce delivery, mission critical
applications such as fire and crowd
control, short-haul professional
travel (e.g., airport to downtown,
city centre to suburbs), and tourism.
A list of eVTOL companies is shown
in Figure 1 (Ref[4]), where different
organizations have matured into
different stages of design, development, validation, and
serial production.
Short Haul Travel in India – UDAN vs UAM
In looking at similarities between UDAN and UAM, it is
important to note the major components as shown in
Figure 2 and listed below: (Ref [4])
1. aircraft for UDAN and vehicles (Autonomous Air
Vehicles (AAVs), eVTOLs etc.) for UAM
2. command-and-control platforms
3. navigation and positioning systems
4. regulatory, safety, and comfort systems
5. base points including infrastructure of landing pads
for AAVs and eVTOLs or runways for aircraft, charging
ports or fuel refilling stations etc.
6. user interface for booking, transportation to the
airport or launching pad, and further travel to the
destination
Eviation, an electric aircraft start-up from Israel
announced that their aircraft “Alice”, with a length of
Fig 3. Eviation Alice Electric Aircraft (Ref [6])
JUNE 2021 41
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Trends
battery technology for automotive
vehicles, there is an opportunity
for GOI to explore test trials of
Alice in India at a future date.
There are quite a few start-
ups exploring hybrid electric
VTOL aircraft, including Samad
Aerospace, VerdeGo Aero,
Sabrewing etc. A concept of
hybrid electric VTOL (he-VTOL)
aircraft from Samad Aerospace is
shown in Figure 4 (Ref [8]).
The U.S. Navy and Pentagon
started hosting a fly-off
competition called Unmanned
Logistics Support-Air (ULS-A)
in Yuma, Arizona to find a UAV
resupply vehicle capable of
carrying up to 30 kgs though the
long term goal is to extend this to
UAVs that can carry loads up to
2000 kgs (Ref [9]).
Few options are available for
MoCA, GOI, with initial trials on
passenger transport or air logistics
support; 1) go with existing
conventional engine based
fixed wing aircraft, 2) try out all
electric eVTOL aircraft, 3) explore
autonomous hybrid he-VTOL
Fig 4. Q-Starling Jet from Samad Aerospace (Ref [8])
aircraft for logistics, and 4) extend
this to ferrying passengers.
about 13m, wingspan of about 16m, battery capacity Summary and Way Forward
of 920 KWH, and drivetrain that can produce 900 KW
For short haul inter-city travel to succeed in India, UDAN-
peak and 260 KW in cruise mode, can accommodate
RCS with fixed wing aircraft may be the best initiative.
9 passengers and 2 crew members with 440 nautical
Though this aims to reduce the inter-city travel time, it
miles of range using NMC chemistry for battery cells (Ref
does not necessarily address the rising pollution levels as
[6]). News reports indicate that two different versions
we continue to use conventional fixed wing aircraft.
of the Alice are planned. While the initial model will use
Lithium-ion battery primarily for air-taxi operations, As a way forward, it would be great if GOI could explore
the latter version may be rolled out with a larger, more the possibilities of
powerful Aluminium-air battery, in a collaborative effort
a) employing electric aircraft (eVTOL) on experimental
with Phinergy, another start up from Israel (Ref [7]).
basis such as Alice aircraft from Eviation, Israel (Ref
As Phinergy has already been working with Indian Oil
[6]) or
Corporation Limited (IOCL) on offering Aluminium-air
42 JUNE 2021 MOBILITY ENGINEERING
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b) exploring synergies between Phinergy, IOCL, and https://www.ehang.com/app/en/EHang%20White%20
National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) on building a Paper%20on%20Urban%20Air%20Mobility%20
concept prototype using Saras aircraft, or Systems.pdf
c) collaborating with Samad Aerospace, UK on hybrid 5. H. Kinjo, “Development Trends and Prospects for
electric fixed-wing aircraft (he-VTOL) eVTOL: A New Mode of Air Mobility,” Mitsui & Co
Global Strategic Studies Institute Monthly Report, June
to try on select routes and take UDAN-RCS to the next
2018
level.
https://www.mitsui.com/mgssi/en/report/detail/__
In a parallel development, UAM can be explored in large icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/07/18/1906m_kinjo_e.pdf
metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,
6. Eviation Alice, Israel, http://www.eviation.co/
and Bangalore for intra-city short haul travel to provide
an alternative to ever growing traffic snarls and ever- 7. D. Sigler, “A huge battery with an airplane painted on
increasing loss of productivity and pollution levels. it,” 24 June 2019,
http://sustainableskies.org/huge-battery-airplane-
Dr. Arunkumar Sampath
painted/
Chief Engineer and Head Innovation,
Global Technology Centre, 8. Samad Aerospace Q-Starling Jet,
Mahindra Electric Mobility https://evtol.com/news/samad-aerospace-q-starling-
Limited & MC Member and concept/
Chairman, Meetings &
9. B. Garrett-Glaser, “Pentagon to leverage commercial
Expositions Board, SAEINDIA
R&D in hybrid VTOL aircraft for logistics,”
References https://www.aviationtoday.com/2020/01/28/
pentagon-leverage-commercial-rd-hybrid-vtol-
1. “UDAN Scheme, Government of India,”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UDAN# aircraft-logistics/
2. “Regional Connectivity Scheme
(RCS), Ministry of Civil Aviation,
Government of India,”
https://www.civilaviation.gov.
in/sites/default/files/Final%20
Regional%20Connectivity%20
Scheme%20%28RCS%29.pdf
3. “Government approves 78 new
routes under UDAN scheme:
focus on North East, islands”
https://www.hindustantimes.
com/india-news/govt-
approves-78-new-routes-
under-udan-scheme-focus-
on-north-east-islands/
story-NDH3asvUJZK3VyeJ5GF7fK.
html
4. EHang, “The Future of
Transportation: White Paper
on Urban Air Mobility,” Jan 15,
2020
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