Agility Prime: Fly Orbs Into a New Era of Aerospace
Flying cars could rewrite how the Air Force and civil society do logistics and transportation... and Agility Prime is the program to help usher the 'not yet' into the 'now.' Join us for this immersive virtual event: A Flying Car Expo powered by the U.S. Air Force.
The Air Force recently launched Agility Prime, a non-traditional program seeking to accelerate the commercial market for advanced air mobility vehicles (i.e., "flying cars").
Leveraging unique testing resources and revenue generating government use cases for distributed logistics and disaster response, the government plans to mitigate current commercial market and regulatory risks.
Agility Prime also aims to bring together industry, investor, and government communities to establish safety and security standards while accelerating commercialization of this revolutionary technology.
The Innovative Capabilities Opening establishes a rapid contracting mechanism beginning in 2020 with a “Race to Certification” series to drive government procurement of operational capability by 2023.
Over two hundred companies around the world are developing transformative vertical flight aircraft for urban/advanced air mobility (UAM/AAM), using electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL, or some prefer autonomous-aVTOL or hybrid-hVTOL) technologies. These aircraft may incorporate non-traditional electric or hybrid propulsion for manned or unmanned operation, with an onboard pilot, remote pilot, or autonomous control.
For years the Department of Defense (DoD) has explored how a modular "bus," similar to a satellite bus or universal serial bus (USB), could enable vast VTOL use cases. This bus concept, from the Latin origins "omnibus," meaning "for all," is central to a strategy that looks to quickly extend the potential benefits of this technology to all, by quickly expanding the market and use cases.
These vehicles are not drones, helicopters, airplanes, cars, trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, and some would adamantly say they are not flying cars. However, they might support similar missions. Orbs could enable distributed logistics and sustainment, with particular utility in medical evacuation, firefighting, civil and military disaster relief, search and rescue, and humanitarian relief operations.
We believe the world is ready to fly orbs, so join with us to help accelerate their time to market!