Rural Air Mobility in Developing Countries: Opportunities, Challenges, and Requirements in the Use of Blockchain to Enhance Growth

Ashiru, Abidemi; Ariff, Omar K.

Abstract

Following the growing interest, hype and technological advancement surrounding Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), there has been an increase in potential use cases. Application includes supply chain logistics, humanitarian aid mission, and transporting people and cargo especially between underserved locations with the use of Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Aircraft. Essentially, it has become peremptory that regulatory regime certifies the safe implementation of VTOLs, and the need to scale the adoption beyond the urban mobility conundrum to truly emphasize its claim to sustainability. Currently, the AAM industry is fixate on the concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) which only address mobility challenges in the cities or densely populated urban centres. Little attention is ascribed to Rural Air Mobility (RAM), a concept with far-reaching positive impact on sustainable development and operation of AAM. The need to connect remote locations cannot be overemphasised given the pace of data-centric technology enabling human-machine interaction through innovations such as blockchain technology for unlimited sustainable use cases. A shared concept of AAM and blockchain is to promote sustainable production and consumption which aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Facilitated by gathering perception with survey questionnaire, and case studies analysis to evaluate the interconnectedness of the three subject areas of rural air mobility, blockchain and sustainable development. This research study explores the challenges and opportunities of RAM in developing countries, and how the application of blockchain technology can enhance growth considering the socio-economic, environmental and policy direction.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: AIAA AVIATION FORUM AND ASCEND 2024
• Start Date: Jul 29, 2024
• End Date: Aug 2, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2024
• Publication Date: Jul 29, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2025
• Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Book Title: AIAA Aviation Forum and ASCEND co-located Conference Proceedings
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-4254