Infrastructure consulting firm AECOM and Ferrovial subsidiary Ferrovial Vertiports said they had recently hosted a vertiport design challenge in which teams from within the two companies were asked to create design concepts for vertiports.
The design concepts were to maximise vertiport efficiency, convenience and sustainability. Vertiports are required infrastructure for (electric) vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Two twelve-person teams participated in the challenge. Meeting in both Madrid and Miami, they came up with designs for vertiports, which would be used by eVTOL operators offering intra-urban and inter-urban passenger transport, pending regulatory reviews and certification.
The team members’ backgrounds were in architecture, design, engineering, operations, health and safety and sustainability.
At the end of the competition, the design concepts were presented to a panel of experts, including Ferrovial Airports CEO Luke Bugeja and AECOM’s Global Transportation Business Line Chief Executive Jennifer Aument. Team Europe was narrowly named the winner, having been marked on criteria such as sustainability, construction, passenger flow, integration, operation, innovation, business orientation and future-proof design. Ferrovial Vertiports says it like will use the best of both designs in the final detailed packages.
Kevin Cox, Chief Executive Officer, Ferrovial Vertiports, said:Congratulations to team Europe on a very close but for a well-deserved victory based on its truly innovative designs and thanks to team United States for making it a true competition with its great ideas.
We assembled talented teams with diverse perspectives, expertise, and experience – including younger-generation professionals who will be among the primary consumers of this technology for decades to come – who came up with creative and practical solutions that will be incorporated into our designs. These ideas and concepts will help us to develop adaptable vertiports that integrate seamlessly into communities and existing transportation systems to offer residents and visitors the benefits of significantly reduced travel times and a convenient, sustainable new mode of transport.
Ferrovial says it will focus its vertiport network on the US and European markets.
