Project Case Study: UrbanAir-Port – Air One

Air One – Ground was commissioned in Coventry 2020. A 1st of its kind state of the art vertiport demonstrating the capabilities of UrbanAir-Ports (UAP) modular and scalable architecture to provide advanced air logistics and passenger mobility. UAP brought together a supply ecosystem including retail, cargo, passenger processing, sustainable power provision, terminal management, and digital controls. Air One Ground was open to guests throughout April & May 2022 as a fully working vertiport demonstration. Logistics flights were conducted daily using UAPs FATO platform.

Airport In a Box (AIB) role was to develop the ground based digital infrastructure which was a UK first. Using their knowledge of the aviation industry AIB’s creative phase provided a concept of which systems may be required and how they may be integrated within the vertiport and with the wider mobility community as optional service offerings. UAP and AIB collaborated on which concepts to take forward into design development. Interfacing with the multi-disciplinary team AIB finalised their technical design and prepared the plans and budgets for next phase. 

On this project AIB directly contracted with the hardware installation suppliers, signed-off their commissioned work on site and the hardware deconstruction at the end of the three weeks demonstration period. AIB developed the back end of the air taxi passenger booking application allowing users to register and login, select a departure and arrival location, select flight times, choose seats, and purchase tickets. A concept retail platform application was also created. AIB provided on site support each week of the demonstrations.

Above is a snapshot of the air taxi passenger booking application.

• Command Centre  
• Internal IP Ethernet Network 
• Connectivity to 5G provider 
• Wireless LAN 
• Workstations and monitors / command centre 
• Mobile Network Point-of-Presence 
• CCTV Operational Cameras for FATO line of sight and drone arrivals light line of sight 
• CCTV security system 
• Weather station  
• Simulated Advanced Building Management System 
• Flight Information Displays

The overall project delivery and demonstrations were very successful and AIB remain the only systems integration company in the UK to have provided digital solutions for a working vertiport.