FutureFlight On The Radar
FAA's Concept of Operations for Urban Air Mobility is a First Take On How to Handle Air Traffic Management for eVTOL Aircraft
Critics say FAA's version one ConOps document for urban air mobility needs more work before service entry starts.

In his cover letter accompanying the FAA’s first version of the concept of operations (ConOps) for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), Steve Bradford, the agency’s chief scientist for architecture and NextGen development, admits that the document is a “work in progress.” Given the content and the reaction to it, that perhaps is an understatement. 

The ConOps 1.0 document was released July 1 and follows discussions with the industry in 2019. While industry observers and stakeholders are universally supportive that the initiative is at last in motion, not everyone is happy on its direction.