NC-1 is the first complete phase of testing NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign. NASA officially revealed who will participate in this campaign. NC-1 will comprise several months of flying demonstrations and simulations at test locations around the United States in 2022. In these demonstrations vehicles, airspace and infrastructure partners will be included to assist NASA in determining how to incorporate new aircraft, including eVTOL air taxis, into the national airspace system. Joby Aviation, Wisk Aero and Reliable Robotics are some of the companies which will perform eVTOL flight demos.
The infrastructure of NC-1 will be provided by five partners – in this list are AURA Network Systems, Raytheon Company, Robust Analytics Inc., SkyGrid, and The University of North Texas. AURA was also chosen for additional communications, navigation, and surveillance flight testing activities. ANRA Technologies Inc., ARINC Incorporated, Avision Inc., Metron Aviation Inc., OneSky Systems Inc., SkyGrid, and Unmanned Experts Inc. will conduct airspace simulations during the campaign.
NASA AAM National Campaign shared that they are very thrilled to perform operational flight demonstrations with the first advanced air mobility integrated experimental ecosystem for the urban environment, which integrates airspace providers, infrastructure services and urban air mobility vehicles in real time. NASA stated that the second round of integrated dry run tests for the AAM National Campaign had been completed, paving the way for development testing with Joby Aviation. Joby will assist NASA in a variety of operations, including the creation of flying scenarios for the NC-1 participants to fly.