9 Jul 2021

Thirteen companies and one university have signed agreements with NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility project’s National Campaign to continue work towards integrating air taxis, cargo delivery aircraft and other new air vehicle concepts into the national airspace system.

The partners will participate in NC-1 by flying their innovative vehicles, developing future airspace system capabilities, or providing key infrastructure related capabilities. NC-1 will include flight demonstrations and simulations at test sites around the country over several months. The following industry partners were chosen:

Flight partners for demonstrations: Reliable Robotics Corporation and continued work with Wisk Aero LLC and Joby Aviation. 

Infrastructure partners for demonstrations: AURA Network Systems, Raytheon Company, Robust Analytics Inc., SkyGrid, and The University of North Texas. AURA was also chosen for additional communications, navigation, and surveillance flight testing activities.

Airspace partners for simulations: ANRA Technologies Inc., ARINC Incorporated, Avision Inc., Metron Aviation Inc., OneSky Systems Inc., SkyGrid, and Unmanned Experts Inc.

These partners have signed on for the first full phase of testing for the National Campaign, or NC-1, which is planned for 2022. This includes flight, airspace, and infrastructure partners for flight testing.

“The National Campaign team is excited to conduct operational flight demonstrations with the first Advanced Air Mobility integrated experimental ecosystem for the urban environment that connects airspace providers, infrastructure services, and a UAM vehicle in real time,” said Starr Ginn, AAM National Campaign lead.

These partners were chosen for a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement to work alongside NASA in a mutually beneficial opportunity.

After solicitations opened in February, several local governments across the U.S. also signed agreements in May to help accelerate Advanced Air Mobility. Additional partnerships are anticipated with industry in support of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility initiatives. 

NASA’s vision for Advanced Air Mobility is to help create safe, sustainable, accessible, and affordable aviation for several uses at the local and regional level.