Abstract:
Developing and operating an advanced air mobility service is challenging in many ways. The technical complexity of the task, the lack of available supporting infrastructure, the regulatory environment, and the necessity of collaboration among all stakeholders are barriers to a wide-spread implementation. Digital tools are now available to the whole industry to tackle those challenges, one of them being the virtual twin experience technology. The virtual twin experience is generated by the digital twin technology applied to a certain domain of application. It is a system of systems designed to provide users with a unique and immersive experience of reality, without physically being present in the real-world environment. It offers capabilities that go beyond traditional means, enabling organizations and users to achieve tasks and insights that were previously not possible. This paper describes how the virtual twin experience is adopted within the advanced air mobility ecosystem, that is comprised of the aircraft manufacturer, the vertiport provider and the operator. It reviews the different business processes on electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle design and manufacturing, vertiport design, and operations, and highlights the associated benefits of such approach. Through these processes, we will see how the virtual twin experiences shape the future of product design, manufacturing, and operations. It changes the way in which stakeholders collaborate in a complex system of systems context. The paper concludes on the ways that the virtual twin experience provides organizations enhanced visualization and understanding, expanded trade-space exploration, and improved decision-making, and how it enables innovators and enterprises alike with greater visibility, efficiency, flexibility, and compliance.