NCDOT Advanced Air Mobility Regional Network
Leading the use-case development plan for NCDOT's Project 3, Safe and Reliable eVTOL Operations for Regional Air Mobility. The plan unifies tactical detect-and-avoid safety, full-year battery and energy feasibility, and strategic cargo hub-location optimization into a single, jointly demonstrable simulation framework for a Charlotte-Piedmont regional eVTOL cargo network.
Project Summary
This NCDOT use case defines a single demonstration stack spanning three layers: safe detect-and-avoid flight for a stopped-rotor eVTOL cargo aircraft (Wisk Gen 6, up to 408 kg / 900 lb payload), full-year battery-health and charging-demand simulation across North Carolina's primary air-cargo corridors, and demand-driven hub-location and flow-allocation optimization for a statewide vertiport network centered on Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) airspace, one of the densest low-altitude corridors in the state.
The integration is sequential and cumulative: the network-optimization model selects candidate vertiports and air links, the energy and battery model evaluates whether that network is feasible across a full year of operations, and the detect-and-avoid model validates that individual flights within the network can be executed safely in congested airspace.
Integrated Demonstration Scope
Tactical Layer
A single CLT to Gastonia Municipal Airport (AKH) flight, approximately 10 nautical miles, must detect and avoid a conflicting intruder aircraft in CLT's congested Class B airspace while flying an energy-risk-aware trajectory that minimizes the added cost of any avoidance maneuver.
Operational Layer
The same aircraft type flies a recurring cargo schedule, five missions per day across a full 365-day year, over six representative North Carolina range classes, with battery state-of-health degradation and charging-energy demand tracked across the entire service horizon.
Strategic Layer
A mixed-integer hub-location and flow-allocation model determines which vertiports open, which air links activate, and how cargo flows are allocated across the candidate network, subject to aircraft range, charging-capacity, and infrastructure-budget constraints.
Shared Route Reference Data
A shared reference table keeps all three simulations comparable, so results feed directly from one layer into the next without re-deriving assumptions.
| Range Class | Representative Route | Primary Use |
|---|---|---|
| 50 nmi | RDU – FAY | Energy & battery baseline |
| 60 nmi | GSO – RDU | Energy & battery baseline |
| 70 nmi | GSO – CLT | Baseline; candidate strategic air link |
| 80 nmi | AVL – CLT | Baseline; candidate strategic air link |
| 90 nmi | EWN – FAY | Energy & battery baseline |
| 100 nmi | RDU – EWN / RDU – ILM | Upper-range stress case |
| ~10 nmi | CLT – AKH | Tactical detect-and-avoid demonstration |
16-Week Delivery Timeline
Weeks 1-4
Simulation-environment and aircraft-dynamics model setup, battery-model calibration, and candidate-node data assembly for the North Carolina network formulation.
Weeks 5-8
Detect-and-avoid conflict logic, mission-scheduler implementation, and first fixed-capacity hub-location model runs.
Weeks 9-12
Energy-risk-aware trajectory optimization, charging-policy sensitivity studies, and scenario sweeps across demand, range, and charging-capacity assumptions.
Weeks 13-16
Final integrated demonstration: network-selection map, annual battery state-of-health and energy dashboard, and tactical CLT–AKH safety validation of the selected air links.
Joint Milestones
Week 4, shared aircraft power-consumption model finalized. Week 8, preliminary range and energy-feasibility figures handed off to the network model. Week 12, candidate air links shared back for tactical validation. Week 16, full-stack joint demonstration.
Final Deliverables
A reusable detect-and-avoid and trajectory-optimization module, a full year of battery and charging-demand simulation results, and a vertiport network recommendation with accompanying sensitivity analysis.