Public acceptance will be ultimate factor in enabling new UAM market

BoeingNeXT: ‘Regulatory sandbox’ key to building public trust.

The “regulatory sandbox” is just one tool being used by Boeing NeXT in its goal of gaining public trust and acceptance of UAM.

Boeing NeXT is involved in the whole “ecosytem” of UAM, from building aircraft to airspace integration. The company is working on safe and responsible introduction of next-generation air vehicles for urban, regional and global markets.

Mildred Troegeler, Director, Global Airspace Integration for BoeingNeXT, said meeting regulatory concerns were key to public acceptance of UAM, with the first vehicles set to appear within this decade: “We believe it will still happen this decade, but what date we are looking at will depend on the regulators, will depend on the region and, ultimately public acceptance.”

The company is working on a number of ‘test and learn’ activities in partnership with the regulators and the results from these will be collected, analysed and shared with authorities on a local, national and global level to gain public trust.

Bigger than Boeing

“It will definitely be bigger than just Boeing,” said Troegeler, “It will be a partnership of regulators, local communities and various key stakeholders that are building the ecosystem around the platform.”

How the new emerging UAM market will unfold will also involve broaching different attitudes and approaches from different countries.

“Our experience is very positive, Most of the regulators we are working with are progressive and forward leaning, but they need the help of the industry to understand how to address universal regulatory unlocks.”

“We are working in partnership with the regulators to pursue what we call regulatory sandbox projects where we are hand-in-hand with the regulators learning and doing demonstration activities in order to gather the data and to build a robust safety case.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.