Powering Urban Air Mobility

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Powering Urban Air Mobility

Globally, companies from established airlines to emerging start-ups are looking to power the Urban Air Mobility market through the development of eVTOL (electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicle) concepts. These vehicles, serving a variety of needs from individual passenger transport to cargo and medical purposes, will rely on all-electric or hybrid-electric power and propulsion systems.

As the leading pioneer of electrical technology, Rolls-Royce is building on our existing expertise and specialist teams to develop clean, efficient and quieter technology to take air transport further while achieving our mission to contribute to a net zero carbon future by 2050.

Martin Boll, Programme Lead for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) at Rolls-Royce Electrical gives an update on the efforts we are taking to lead the way in powering air taxis.

Anna Leicht

Martin Boll


What attracted you to Urban Air Mobility?

I joined Rolls-Royce from Siemens eAircraft in September 2019. There, I started out in technical project management for regional air mobility, novel aerospace material development and system design software. When moving to Rolls-Royce, I started paying attention to the emergence of Urban Air Mobility and its routes to market. What a great opportunity as a programme manager to overcome the technical, economic and regulatory challenges and deliver the propulsion that powers the eVTOLs.

With urban populations growing, public transport systems overwhelmed and the call for new more sustainable solutions, we need new ways to connect people and Urban Air Mobility provides a way out. eVTOL can enhance existing transport means and, when integrated usefully, increase the overall transport network’s efficiency.

Are you confident that the Urban Air Mobility market will take off?

There is an enormous number of start-ups and established players working on eVTOL programmes, many of them presenting promising concepts, as well as investors looking to get involved.

Here in Rolls-Royce’s Electrical business, we feel a bit like a start-up within a much larger, established business.

We’re emerging into this new market with technology that has some really differentiating features. For example, we are the first company to take a transversal-flux architecture to test and rely on unforced air-cooling, which positively benefits the overall system weight. In addition, we have a really strong heritage of expertise in aviation, safety and certification. We can leverage the Rolls-Royce Group’s aerospace know-how and industrial systems to deliver a scalable business with all the enabling infrastructure, from power generation to maintenance, repair and operations (MRO), and propulsion systems to data analytics. These factors combined give us a huge advantage and open up a lot of exciting opportunities over the next decade.

What are the next steps towards passengers flying in electric air taxis?

As a starting point, customers are looking to operate fixed routes between specific points in megacities, which are already partially served by helicopters. eVTOL provide the opportunity to widen access to these routes, quietly and sustainably.

Our role in helping them do that is to ensure they get the best value possible out of their propulsion systems by working together to understand the size, weight and performance requirements they’re working with, for the right price.

Alongside this, vehicles will need dedicated vertiports for charging that can be accessed safely which will mean working to understand power supply needs and new air traffic control regulations that will need to be brought into effect. Customers also want to know that they can access integrated maintenance and services they need conveniently, without disrupting their operations. These are all areas we’re looking to provide solutions.

You are the Programme Lead for Rolls-Royce’s Urban Air Mobility programme. What are you hoping to achieve?

In my role as Programme Lead, it’s my job to deliver the product that incorporates the customer’s voice while making sure that we deliver the programme on time, cost and quality in accordance with the our Rolls-Royce values. I help to guide our designers and experts within the Electrical team at Rolls-Royce so that our route to market is achieved.

With this market being so new, it’s important that we monitor the market trends very closely and work together with the customer from a much earlier stage than we would in traditional aviation. Making sure that relationship is aligned is absolutely key.

What is Rolls-Royce offering the Urban Air Mobility market?

As a leader in Advanced Air Mobility solutions, our mission is to understand this evolving market while guiding the technological development to ensure we are delivering the complete propulsion system that will power this new mode of transport.

We’re designing, testing and developing propulsion systems, power electronics, energy storage and distribution systems and a turbogenerator system that are essential in enabling electric and hybrid-electric aircraft to fly safely and efficiently.

Our electric propulsion unit (EPU) has a unique architecture. This is a direct-drive, air-cooled 150 kW power output propulsion unit with lift and push functionality that is compatible with tilt and non-tilt eVTOL configurations. It can reach high torque to weight ratio thanks to integrated design, advanced thermal management and innovative topology, which, as mentioned earlier, is a key differentiator in what we’re offering to the market. Furthermore, it is compatible with a unique multi-lane power distribution architecture that provides the highest motor performance by ensuring safe and reliable flight even in the event of a motor failing.

It sounds like an exciting time.

It is an incredible opportunity to be at the forefront of developing electrical technology that could power these new vehicles. We’re currently working together with our key customers on the testing of our prototype technologies in 2023, with a view to these entering into service by 2027.

As part of the wider Rolls-Royce Group, we benefit from decades of experience in safety and certification which means we’re incredibly well-placed to launch these new technologies.

In my role, it is incredible to witness how everything comes together from design, supply chain, manufacturing, testing and operation of our products.

Eventually, intercity travel by eVTOL shouldn’t cost much more than a traditional taxi and ensuring that we make that happen while also delivering a cleaner, more sustainable future is incredibly exciting.

First published 23 December 2020. Updated 23 August 2023.


The UAM leadership team – with Markus Christmann, Chief Engineer Urban Air Mobility

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