Announcement of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Ecosystem Working Groups

NOTE: This RFI replaces the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Announcement of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Ecosystem Working Groups RFI. Revisions are marked by Bold Italic Text.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is hereby requesting registration through this notice from interested parties for the following:

NASA seeks public, private, and academic organizations to collaborate with NASA in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem working groups, focused on enabling the AAM ecosystem. The realization of the AAM vision will be possible only through the input and contributions of multiple stakeholders, each possessing the necessary authority, expertise, and/or resources to fulfill a critical role in AAM’s development, approval, and implementation. The applicable participants will become integral to the working groups, which will provide a forum for those stakeholders to comment, collaborate and impact the overall ecosystem.

The primary purpose of the AAM ecosystem working groups is to share input, information and opinions that may help to accelerate the development of safe, high-volume AAM flight operations in the existing and anticipated future national airspace system. A broad participation from many organizations will enable NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the AAM community to supplement the existing efforts in the industry, focusing on understanding the viewpoints of a diverse group of stakeholders and an understanding of the ecosystem as a whole. The AAM ecosystem working groups, in coordination with the National Campaign (NC) series, industry developments and other ARMD efforts, will contribute to the enablement of AAM markets.

NASA seeks to accomplish the following goals:

• Communicate the current and future state of the AAM ecosystem and align on terminology, challenges, barriers, and solutions.
• Provide a forum to forge collaborative opportunities to advance the state of the art AAM, including establishing new industry partnerships.
• Increase awareness of NASA’s research and planned transition paths.
• Develop a NASA-curated “Book of Requirements” for AAM technology, systems, and operations.
• Support discussions of regulatory and standards development activities at the federal, state, and local level.
• Inform the community on the current state of the industry to identify research gaps and areas of highest industry need.
• Engage the public on AAM, including stakeholders from state and local governments.

The working group participants will be asked to share their diverse expertise, information and opinions on these topics. The working groups will be a forum to communicate industry demonstrations, research and development (R&D) priorities, and share concepts that may enable AAM. Participants will help identify the critical parameters and standards that may impact the future framework development and approach for safety, certification, airspace, aircraft concepts, technologies, and architectures.

NASA seeks information and viewpoints on the following priority topics:

• The overall approach to the National Campaign (NC) Series, including elements of NC Developmental Testing and the first National Campaign.
• Requirements associated with each aircraft system and subsystems, airspace system and subsystems, and infrastructure necessary to advance AAM.
• Community wide R&D efforts, with a focus on areas of NASA R&D that will enable critical elements of AAM integration.
• Federal, local, and other industry led initiatives.

Working Group Execution Approach

NASA commenced the AAM ecosystem working groups in a virtual forum March 2020. To view the discussed content, please visit the following webpage: https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/aamwgvirtualkickoff.

In addition to the virtual kickoff, NASA will be hosting periodic working group meetings to continue to facilitate community engagement and information related to the AAM ecosystem. NASA expects inputs from the community will be broad and diverse and are thereby not expecting to reach consensus. The meetings will function similarly to open workshops with specific topics serving to focus discussions. By registering, the parties will be added to the distribution list and informed of all meeting times. This is not a formal membership, and consequently, there will be opportunity for all registered parties to attend any scheduled meetings.

Most frequently, the meetings will be in a virtual environment to minimize impact on participating organizations while maximizing the opportunities to interface. However, the working group’s goals will determine the need and frequency for in-person (if circumstances allow) and virtual meetings.

Benefits

Participation in the AAM ecosystem working groups will give contributors the opportunity to closely collaborate with NASA and other government organizations in discussions relating to standards, policies, and operationalization of AAM. These discussions will leverage NASA's knowledge and lessons learned with extensive experience designing, testing, and flying one-of-a-kind aircraft and airspace management systems. Moreover, participants will receive consistent updates regarding the current state of the AAM ecosystem, allowing them to determine where they can provide the best value to their organizations and industry.

Information Requested

The Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) project welcomes all potential collaborators looking to enable AAM to respond to this notice through the registration link: https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/aam

Registration will consist of completing the following information:

• Organization
• Category (you can choose multiple, if applicable)
  • Aircraft (please specify the subcategory)
    • Aircraft developers
    • Airframe & propulsion
    • Manufacturing
    • Integrated automation & aircraft Operations
    • Flight automation
  • Airspace (please specify the subcategory)
    • Airspace design
    • Flight procedures development
    • AAM-port design
    • CNS
    • Traditional ATM suppliers
    • UTM USS provides
    • Flight service suppliers
    • Fleet operations
    • Test ranges and FAA UAS test sites
  • Community (please specify the subcategory)
    • Government – Federal, State, and local municipalities
    • Developers
    • Venture capitalists
    • Test ranges and FAA UAS test sites
    • Fixed based operators (FBOs)
    • Community based interest groups
    • Industry based interest groups (e.g. ACI, GAMA, JARUS, etc.)
• Point of Contact: (for each category selected)
  • Name
  • Email
• If requested, can we include your contact information on a list of respondents?
  • Yes
  • No
• Information explaining your organization’s overall interest, long-term vision, and potential contributions to the AAM implementation (1000 characters max.)

After the initial entry, NASA may reach out to gather additional information. Once all responses are collected, participants will be contacted with details regarding the next steps.

The information is requested for planning purposes only. This RFI does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP), Invitation for Bid (IFB), Request for Quote (RFQ) or Announcement for Proposal. This RFI is not an offer nor a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract or any other type of agreement. This RFI does not indicate or intend that the Government will issue a solicitation or award a contract in this area nor does it obligate the government to pay for any information solicited or invest any resources specific to the targeted area.