AiRMOUR to begin first validation flights next week

The flights will be conducted on 21 September in Stavanger, Norway, with further flights planned to be conducted later in Helsinki, Finland, and Kassel, Germany until spring 2023.

AiRMOUR’s validation flights will include two different aircraft produced by Chinese UAM developer Ehang – the EH216 ‘flying taxi’, and the Falcon L400, and will feature transportation of both personnel and medical equipment – personnel will be simulated through test dummies.

It follows a previous round of research in which the AiRMOUR team carried out research on potential medical use cases, exploring how drone services could be integrated into existing medical systems, and what the potential risks were.

“The aim of the validations is to progress from less demanding flights and circumstances to the most demanding ones, to increase the overall understanding on what is possible in the European regulatory framework for urban air mobility, with the current operational capabilities and user needs said Coordinator of the AiRMOUR project, Principal Scientist Doctor Petri Mononen.

“The expectation is that we will gain a wealth of new state-of-the-art knowledge in terms of the social aspects, and also the technological aspects, such as air risks, ground risks, patient risks, airspace limitations and landing infrastructure – and much more, as determined within our AiRMOUR success criteria work to predate all of the validations,” he added.