Image Credit: amd.sigma, Goldbeck
Munich Airport International subsidiary amd.sigma has designed a digital twin of a multi-storey car park vertiport in the German city of Ingolstadt.
“This multi-storey carpark vertiport demonstrates how advanced air mobility can holistically integrate into ground infrastructure,” amd.sigma Strategic Airport Development Senior Manager Olaf Bünck told Zag Daily.
“We’ve solved all the architectural and structural challenges with this multi-storey car park vertiport, so if anyone comes to us tomorrow and says they want to build it, we know how to do that.”
According to Olaf, creating hybrid buildings which have vertiports on their top level is a cost-effective method of integrating advanced air mobility into urban cities. The digital twin demonstrates how a multi-storey car park can be built with a vertiport, but investors can use amd.sigma’s design plans to build other structures with integrated vertiports such as office buildings.
“If you have six layers of car parking underneath a vertiport which is all earning you money then the whole building is a cash cow. You get a much better looking business plan.”
The rooftop vertiport can therefore be seen as a lower-risk investment compared with building on the ground. For example, if the vertiport does not get used then this doesn’t impact the income generated from the rest of the building. The top level can then be converted to serve another purpose, such as holding solar panels.
“It’s not a dead investment this way. It’s still a functional building.”
The virtual vertiport is part of the Airbus-led Air Mobility Initiative (AMI) which oversees research projects on eVTOL aircrafts, unmanned traffic management services, and airports and city integration.
Funded by the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany, the ‘AMI-FlyingIN2Air’ project is focused on the holistic development of advanced air mobility in cities, which amd.sigma’s virtual vertiport belongs to.
Amd.sigma is working with construction company Goldbeck to build and scale hybrid buildings like parking structures, office buildings and housing buildings. The consultancy is already in discussion with several investors before it officially launches the virtual vertiport in September.
