Community Air Mobility Initiative Launches

SEATTLE, Washington - The Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI) announces its launch with the support of its founding members. CAMI is a new nonprofit industry association, featuring electrified transportation market leader Black & Veatch as a founding member, dedicated to providing communities and the decision makers that support them with the information and tools that will be vital to the successful integration of aviation into our daily transportation options.

CAMI’s mission is to support the responsible integration of urban air mobility into communities through education, communication and advocacy. CAMI connects communities and industry by providing resources and education to the public and decision makers at the state and local level. CAMI is supported by its members, who cover a wide spectrum of stakeholders in the emerging urban air mobility industry.

On the genesis of CAMI, co-Executive Director Anna Dietrich says: “New technologies and new aircraft promise to make flight accessible and practical on a daily basis for more people than ever before. With that promise comes the responsibility to integrate those aircraft into our communities safely, responsibly, and equitably. We created CAMI as the industry’s commitment to our neighbors and the decision makers who support them to work to ensure that happens.”

CAMI is pleased to announce its founding members:

• Bell
• Black & Veatch
• Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
• General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)
• Joby Aviation
• Jump Aero
• Karem Aircraft
• Massachusetts Department of Transportation
• National Business Aviation Association (NBAA)
• Raytheon
• SAE International
• Unmanned Safety Institute
• Vertical Flight Society

Members prioritize safety, bring credibility to CAMI and the industry, and have a demonstrated desire to be a good neighbor within their communities. Members recognize the importance of working with local communities to understand their needs and support CAMI in providing resources to decision makers, agencies and the public, as well as assisting the aviation industry in understanding those community needs. CAMI is grateful for their support to launch this initiative.

Greg Bowles, head of government affairs at CAMI founding supporting member Joby Aviation, says, “We are excited to be a part of CAMI and work closely with communities to achieve the goal of creating a new transportation solution that saves people time. Communities will play a very important role in realizing the benefits of safe, urban air transportation in a clean and quiet manner.”

For urban air mobility to succeed, it must be safe, quiet and a desired component of our communities. A successful urban air mobility industry requires the integration of aviation into existing urban and regional transportation systems that are currently fraught with their own challenges, including traffic congestion, urban sprawl, environmental impacts and noise. CAMI recognizes that to be successful, this requires the collaboration of many stakeholders, including elected officials, urban planners, transportation agencies, architects, real estate developers, business owners, and essential services.

Black & Veatch, an engineering and construction company with deep experience in electrified transportation solutions, recently produced an urban air mobility infrastructure study for NASA that explored the challenges, solutions and opportunities in preparing the grid for electrified urban air mobility.

“Electrified Urban Air Mobility opens the third dimension to increase people and goods movement capacity yet not increase fleet emissions.” said Paul Stith, director of strategy and innovation for Black & Veatch’s Transformative Technologies business. “Key to UAM electrification success will be resilient charging infrastructure for today, and with room to scale for future needs. The time to bring stakeholders together to plan and prepare for this future is now.”

CAMI’s strategic priorities include education, outreach, advocacy, public relations and model policy development. CAMI has a team of experts in the fields of urban air mobility, electric aircraft, sustainability, infrastructure, operations, markets and innovative personal aviation industries who will contribute to the resources CAMI will develop. CAMI also works closely with other industry associations to collaborate on these issues.

“As the aviation industry continues to mature the technologies needed to bring electric aircraft into communities, it became clear that the most important need was to bridge the work of the industry with the local communities where this technology will be implemented,” said Yolanka Wulff, co-executive director. “CAMI understands the importance of working with all of the stakeholders to develop urban air mobility that integrates with existing and future urban and regional transportation systems.”

About CAMI: The Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI) was founded in July 2019 to support the responsible integration of urban air mobility into communities through education, communication and advocacy. CAMI connects communities and industry by providing resources and education to the public, decision makers and the media at the state and local level. CAMI is supported by its members, which include aircraft manufacturers and suppliers, operators, industry associations, state and local agencies, ecosystem members, academia, and nonprofits. For more information visit www.communityairmobility.org or email contact@communityairmobility.org.

About Black & Veatch: Black & Veatch is an employee-owned engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2018 were US$3.5 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and in social media.