UAM Glossary
The AiRMOUR project works across the domains of aviation, urban and regional planning and management and emergency and non-emergency medical services. See below the glossary that helps different stakeholder groups to find shared terminology and understanding for discussions of Urban Air Mobility.
The glossary includes ca. 50 key terms and was published as a part of the AiRMOUR deliverable 2.1 ‘Foresight analysis and UAM EMS integration process management‘.
| Abbreviation | Full term | Definition |
|---|---|---|
AAM | Advanced Air Mobility | An air transportation system that moves people and cargo between places previously not served or underserved by aviation – local, regional, intraregional, urban – leveraging new technologies and possibilities, where some of these are still under development. |
| AIM | Aeronautical Information Management | Dynamic, integrated management of aeronautical information services through the provision and exchange of quality-assured digital aeronautical data, in collaboration with all parties. |
| Air Taxi | Aircraft carrying passengers along typically short routes, which are not serviced by conventional civil aviation operators. Commonly used to describe commercial services. | |
| ATC | Air Traffic Control | A service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through controlled airspace and can provide traffic information services to aircraft in uncontrolled airspace. |
| ATM | Air Traffic Management | An umbrella term describing the necessary toolkit of airborne and ground-based functions (air traffic services, airspace management and air traffic flow management) required to ensure the safe, secure, and efficient movement of aircraft during all phases of operation. |
| AAV | Autonomous Aerial Vehicle | Aircraft designed to operate autonomously, predominantly without a person involved in the mission control. It is close, by definition, to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), although not all UAVs are AAVs, since some UAVs require a remote operator or pilot. |
| BRLOS | Beyond Radio Line of Sight | Subgroup or specification of BLOS where there is no direct link between ground station and the aircraft, and another form of relay is used – for example, Satcom, mobile technology, etc. |
| BVLOS | Beyond Visual Line of Sight | Sometimes also called BLOS, it describes BVLOS operations, where the flying of a drone is without a pilot always maintaining visual line of sight to the aircraft. |
| ConOps (UAM) | Concept of Operations (in Urban Air Mobility) | A definition of operations, operational environments and applicable legislative and/or regulative framework documents, in the context of Urban Air Mobility operations. |
| Drone | Aircraft (Unmanned Aircraft – UA) or vehicle (e.g., underwater drones) designed to operate in fully autonomously (pre-programmed route and behaviour, without a human in control), automated (pre-programmed route and possible to take control at any time by Remote Pilot) or piloted remotely (Remote Pilot controls the drone on the ground). Also called Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Unmanned Aircraft (UA) when referring to drone aircraft. | |
| EASA | European Aviation Safety Agency | Agency of the European Union responsible for designing the civil aviation safety framework. EASA’s mission is to promote the highest common standards of safety and environmental protection in civil aviation. The Agency develops common safety and environmental rules at the European level. |
| EMS | Emergency Medical Services | These are emergency or Urgent services providing sufficient pre-hospital treatment or even replacing it with on-site qualified medical care in case of challenges for the patient transportation. |
| eVTOL | Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft | Helicopters or novel aircraft, that uses electrical propulsion to take-off, hover, and land vertically. |
| Geofencing | A virtual geographic boundary defining a volume of airspace, which the autopilot of an aircraft will not cross in normal operating conditions. | |
| GIS | Geographic Information System | Computer-based software that allows the user to store and edit spatial and non-spatial data, analyse spatial information output, and visually share the results of these operations by presenting them as maps. |
| HEMS flight | Helicopter Emergency Medical Services flight | Out-of-hospital emergency medical services provided by air, with a helicopter. A flight by a helicopter operating under a HEMS approval, the purpose of which is to facilitate emergency medical assistance, where immediate and rapid transportation is essential, by carrying: (a) medical personnel; (b) medical supplies (equipment, blood, organs, drugs) (c) ill or injured persons and other persons directly involved |
| Metropolitan area | Populated region with a high-density core (city) and lower density peripheral region (suburbs, rural areas). | |
| PPP | Public-Private Partnership | Cooperative arrangement and/or undertaking between two or more public and private stakeholder organisations, aiming long term collaboration to serve both public and private interests. |
| RAM | Regional Air Mobility | Mode of AAM using existing small airports to transport people in small aircraft over distances of up to 300 kilometres. |
| RPA | Remotely Piloted Aircraft | An unmanned aircraft which is piloted from a remote pilot station and is expected to be integrated into the air traffic management system equally as manned aircraft and, where real-time piloting control is provided by a licensed remote pilot. |
| RPAS | Remotely Piloted Aircraft System | Originating from ICAO, consists of the Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and all the necessary components for its operation, including its hardware, software, control links and the associated remote pilot station(s). |
| SESAR JU | Joint European ATM Research Join Undertaking | As the technological pillar of Europe’s ambitious Single European Sky (SES) initiative, SESAR is the mechanism which coordinates and concentrates all EU research and development (R&D) activities in ATM, pooling together a wealth of experts to develop the new generation of ATM. |
| Smart City | Urban area applying various digital technologies and methods, as well as Artificial Intelligence, for data collection, processing, analysis, and decision-making support, with the final aim of improved well-being of its citizens. | |
| Strategic deconfliction | A service that before take-off ensures that different aircraft will not collide. Each new operation/flight plan is before takeoff compared to other known operation/flight plans and a deconfliction in time or route is proposed. | |
| SUMP | Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan | Strategic and long-term policy plan designed to improve quality of life in cities by satisfying mobility needs of their inhabitants, businesses, and their environment through the implementation of sustainable mobility and transport solutions. |
| TRA | Temporary Restriction Area | A notice of temporary restrictions on a specific volume of airspace linked to the presence of government VIPs, special events, natural disasters, and other occurrences. |
| Transportation planning | Process of defining and managing various issues related to the establishment and development of transportation systems of cities, countries, and regions. | |
| UAM | Urban Air Mobility | Extension of transportation systems at metropolitan areas, or between those for distances that are not covered by regular aviation, in the third dimension – air. |
| UAM ecosystem | Urban Air Mobility Ecosystem | The entire range of stakeholders such as city, regional, aviation and environmental authorities as well as drone and air taxi operators relevant for the successful planning, integration, and operation of UAM in a particular location or region. |
| UAM integration | Urban Air Mobility integration | Managed framework for the organisational, infrastructural, regulatory, and economic integration of the Urban Air Mobility operations without degrading safety, security, or overly disrupting existing airspace operations. |
| UAM operator | Urban Air Mobility operator | Commercial stakeholder responsible for the practical operation of drones and Air Taxis, who shall hold valid licenses and certifications from EASA. |
| Route planning | Static or dynamic four-dimensional route planning for aircraft in a complex urban environment, considering multiple factors from the domains of air and ground risk, including the built environment, citizens, other existing transport & mobility modes as well as environmental factors. | |
| UA | Unmanned Aircraft | Also called drone or UAV, is an aircraft without a pilot on board. |
| Passenger UA | Passenger-carrying Unmanned Aircraft | An Unmanned Aircraft with passengers onboard. |
| UAS | Unmanned Aircraft System | UA plus the necessary operation infrastructure and control units on ground and in air, such as data transmission infrastructure and other operation support systems or elements. |
| UAS geographical zone | Unmanned Aircraft System geographical zone | A portion of airspace that facilitates, restricts, or excludes drone operations to address risks pertaining to safety, privacy, protection of personal data, security, or the environment, arising from UAS operations. |
| Urban development | The development or improvement of an organised inhabited spatial unit or area by building and introduction of new supportive functional and infrastructural processes and units. | |
| Urban planning | Technical and political process focused on the spatial, construction, infrastructural and functional design, and development process management in organised inhabited spatial units and/or areas. | |
| U-space | A set of new services relying on a high level of digitalisation and automation of functions and specific procedures designed to support safe, efficient, and secure access to airspace for large numbers of air vehicles. Not synonymous to ‘U-space airspace’. | |
| U-space airspace | A volume of airspace, in which the EU U-space regulation (EU) 2021/664 applies. Not synonymous to ‘U-space’. | |
| USSP | U-space service provider | Private or public entity supporting the safe and efficient operation of drones and safe access to airspace. These organisations must be certified to provide U-space services in one or more European member states. |
| UTM | Unmanned aircraft system Traffic Management | A digital air traffic management ecosystem that ensures the flight safety of unmanned aircraft. UTM is separate from, but complementary, to the ATM system. |
| Vertiport | Landing site designed specifically to support Vertical Take-Off and Landing operations, including taxiing, parking, and servicing of the aircraft as well a cargo and passenger handling facility. | |
| VLL airspace | Very Low-Level Airspace | The airspace below 500 feet (~150 meters) above the ground level. |
| VTOL UA | Vertical Take-Off and Landing UA | UA able to take off, hover and land vertically. |
| Urban Airspace Zoning | A dynamic 4D spatial planning process of the low-level urban airspace, with special flight conditions imposed in different parts of the airspace. Flight conditions may also vary during specific times of the day and week. Examples of flight conditions are preferred or no-fly zones or approach and departure routes from landing sites. |