INTERNATIONAL SPACE
The RSAF's aerial display will feature nine manoeuvres by the F-16C fighter aircraft and 12 manoeuvres by the pair of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters. Photo Credit: SIngapore Airshow 2022
Volocopter flight over Marina Bay, Singapore, in 2019. Photo Credit: Volocopter.
Marina Bay in 2019, there had been several developments of significance in the sector. During the SIngapore Airshow 2022, Volocopter announced that it is targeting a commercial launch in Singapore around 2024 and has released its “Singapore Roadmap” – one of the fist places in the world in which the company will operate. Skyports’ expertise and experience of providing the critical link between the ground and the sky through the design and development of take-off and landing sites – vertiports – for eVTOL will be leveraged in multiple projects. In particular, Skyports signed an MOU with several government agencies in Singapore for further research and development work, which includes the provision of an air taxi vertiport terminal, airside facilities and hangarage, and UA pilot training. However, sharing a common and busy air space for the safe operations of manned and unmanned aircraft is not without challenges. For example, today’s regulations set out height restrictions and geofencing rules for drones – such as Singapore’s rules that drones must not fly within the specified distance of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of an airport. To spur UA adoption and scale up for commercial operations, a crucial development is the safe integration of UA into a nonsegregated airspace. Speaking at the “Sustainable Aviation Forum – Day 1”, Tan Kah Han (Senior Director, Unmanned Systems Group, CAAS) laid out three phases to “interface then integrate to enable AAM (advanced air mobility) operations” from a regulatory perspective. The approach sees regulations in today’s segregated airspace replaced progressively by a “UTM & ATM Convergence” (unmanned traffic management and air traffic management) in the near term with the deployment of drones delivery, and an “UTM & ATM integrated Airspace” in the future with the launch of eVTOLs. CAAS is also working with universities and other partners, to further ATM research using digital and other tools. Demonstrating the importance of public-private partnership, an MOU was also inked with ST Engineering Aerospace Ltd at the SIngapore Airshow 2022 to jointly advance UA technologies development and adoption in Singapore.
Ready for take-off
SIngapore Airshow 2022. 15 – 18 February 2022, Singapore Changi Exhibition Centre. Photo Credit: ST Engineering.
18 | Australia in Space Magazine
The recovery of the industry is another topic that takes centre-stage at this year’s Airshow. Notwithstanding potential headwinds such as rising oil prices and overall price inflation,
