BADA eVTOL Performance Model for UTM Traffic Simulation and Analysis

A new digital traffic management ecosystem, commonly referred to as UTM (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management), is currently under development to enable autonomous operations at scale at low altitudes, including UAM (Urban Air Mobility). UTM is anticipated to provide services that will facilitate airspace integration of high-density operations involving passenger-carrying eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-off and Landing) vehicles in urban airspace. Concepts of operations, regulations and standards for UTM are being developed in different regions (such as the U-space and Advanced Air Mobility initiatives in Europe and the US, respectively), but much work still needs to be done in order to operationalize an UTM ecosystem that can cater for the anticipated requirements of UAM. In particular, advanced modelling and simulation tools are needed to analyze how UAM traffic can be safely integrated in the airspace. A cornerstone of such simulation tools will be an Aircraft Performance Model (APM) that is able to accurately reproduce the main performance variables of different eVTOLs and that allows realistic modelling and simulation of eVTOL trajectories in any condition. Such a model will allow the UTM and UAM communities to conduct the studies required to advance towards the operationalization of UTM and UAM. This paper proposes a generic APM that aims to fulfil those requirements. The proposed APM is based on the modelling approach of EUROCONTROL’s Base of Aircraft Data (BADA). It provides a generic performance model that can be parameterized for different eVTOLs while protecting the manufacturers’ proprietary performance data, and includes the performance variables needed to calculate the evolution of the vehicle’s trajectory, including battery consumption.