The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Since 2007, more than half of the world's population has been living in cities, and according to the United Nations that share is projected to rise to 60% by 2030. With a rising population and more cars on the road, travelling across metropolitan areas is increasingly becoming slower and not efficient in terms of energy usage, fuel consumption, and productivity. This significant urban population growth is pushing towards innovative mobility options design, as ground infrastructure becomes increasingly congested. In this framework, a novel transportation concept has been proposed aimed to exploit the vertical dimension in urban transport environment: the Urban Air Mobility (UAM). This paper focuses on the description of the UAM perspectives over the mid-term time horizon, based on the consideration of the expected readiness level of the main enabling technologies for UAM implementation, while also considering aspects related to propulsion, information and communication technologies, infrastructures and U-Space, all of them necessary for the deployment of UAM.

The vision of a third dimension added to hitherto nearly flat urban/metropolitan transport system gained the potential to become a mobility revolution for both logistics operators and, in the near future, for passengers as well. In spite of the expected emergence of this new form of transport and respective benefits for the efficiency of the mobility system at urban and suburban scale, UAM implementation also involves unprecedented and numerous challenges for cities and for all local public and private stakeholders. The local governing bodies are expected to provide policy, regulations and guidance for the implementation of UAM and to assure its integration with the ground mobility systems as well as with other urban functionalities. Taking into account both potential benefits and associated challenges related to UAM implementation, ASSURED-UAM (Acceptance, Safety and SUstainability Recommendations for Efficient Deployment of UAM) project, funded by the H2020 Programme, aims to support that effort, by providing a multidisciplinary study on operational and policy frameworks for the process of the introduction of unmanned modes of UAM.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the overall framework in which the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) deployment is expected to be implemented. Another aim of the study is to give a better overview on the current regulations and standards including the impact of the regulations on the industry, operations and cities. Design/methodology/approach This paper performs a literature review on the regulatory framework, which provides a clear view of the current regulations and standards. The review includes the insight into the details of possible international rules for the future, considering operations in the specific and certified categories. The impact and trends of current and future regulations are also presented. Findings The analysis described in this paper shows a strong upward trend in UAM technical and operational developments as well as further potential for a successful incorporation in city mobility concepts. This paper indicates the importance of the representatives of guideline development organizations, industry, agencies and other important players involved in the standard development process. Practical implications This section describes synthesis on the required level of safety for UAM operations as well as description on the impact of the regulations from different perspectives, including industry and certification of urban aircraft, operations and air traffic management, cities and the governance of the urban airspace and well as technology. Originality/value Barriers such as legislation do not allow the common UAM to be deployed. This paper studies the overall framework in which the UAM deployment is expected to be implemented.

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The present work is framed inside a broader activity aimed at improving the accuracy of numerical models in predicting the crashworthiness behavior of flexible fuel tanks. This paper describes a comprehensive experimental and numerical study aimed at estimating the impact force of a test article, consisting of a soft nylon bag filled with water, subjected to crash impact tests. In order to understand and improve response predictions, the test article drops freely from different heights, and then strikes onto a rigid plate which is instrumented with different types of sensors. Strain gauges, piezoceramic sensors, and fiber optics are used to measure the strain induced by the impact force during the experiments. To tune the test matrix and the measurement chain parameters, numerical computations are carried out to predict the dynamics of drop impact through FE explicit analyses. Through analysis and comparison with experimental results, a relationship between strain and impact energy correlated with the drop height is established, and the overall accuracy of the entire measurement chain is assessed to determine the effectiveness of such a methodology in a full-scale test on a flexible fuel tank structure.