Madrid’s Bold Leap into Urban Air Mobility with Boeing’s ‘Variant’ Project
Madrid, April 17 – The government of the Community of Madrid, spearheaded by President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is providing financial backing for an ambitious Boeing project aimed at developing flying taxis. This initiative, known as ‘Variant’ (Validation of the Integration of Applications and New Technologies in Airspace), seeks to facilitate the safe, efficient, and scalable integration of next-generation electric and autonomous aircraft into current and future airspace.
The project is led by Boeing Aerospace Spain and involves a consortium that includes Anzen Engineering, AI Methods, and QCentroid Labs. Academic partners such as the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) and the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), alongside Enaire and Crida, are also contributing as subcontractors. This collaborative effort underscores a significant commitment to advancing urban air mobility.
Developing the Future of Urban Transportation
Boeing states that ‘Variant’ is focused on innovative air mobility, encompassing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles designed to operate at low altitudes in urban and suburban environments. The project will validate operational concepts, ground systems, and technologies through simulation, laboratory testing, and high-fidelity simulation trials. Essentially, the Madrid-funded concept envisions flying taxis traversing city skies, making vertical descents into designated ‘vertiports’.
Eduardo Carrillo de Albornoz, General Director of Boeing Engineering and Technology Innovation Europe, emphasized the project’s importance: “The Variant program represents a critical step in preparing airspace for the mobility of the future. By validating the aircraft and ground systems together, we will ensure that electric and autonomous vehicle operations are integrated safely and efficiently, providing value to communities and enabling new means of transport.”
The primary objective of ‘Variant’ is to develop novel operational procedures and automated air traffic management services specifically for vertiport operations. Pablo de la Cruz, CEO of Anzen Engineering, highlighted his company’s contribution: “At Anzen Engineering, we offer the Variant consortium our expertise in prevention, safety, and systems engineering.”
De la Cruz further explained, “The project represents an excellent opportunity to validate the requirements, interfaces, and assurance frameworks necessary to integrate vertiport operations and innovative air mobility into the existing airspace system, with the level of rigor that future certifiable services will demand.”
Quantum Computing and Enhanced Air Traffic Management
Carlos Kuchkovsky, CEO of QCentroid, noted the computational challenges inherent in integrating autonomous electric aircraft into shared urban airspace. “Integrating electric and autonomous aircraft into shared urban airspace is, in essence, a highly complex computational challenge,” he stated. “QCentroid provides a systematic framework to evaluate how quantum and hybrid computing can significantly improve air traffic management, complementing our partners’ expertise in AI and prevention.”
The ‘Variant’ project is also set to enhance ground traffic surveillance, local weather monitoring, resource management at vertiports, and GNSS signal spoofing detection services. These advancements align with the strategic goals of SkyGrid, a Boeing subsidiary dedicated to digital airspace management.
Jia Xu, CEO of SkyGrid, underscored the project’s role in accelerating the development and validation of these services: “The safety of autonomous aircraft operations depends on adequate situational awareness, resilience in positioning and temporal synchronization, as well as intelligent management and integration of airport infrastructure. Variant accelerates the development and validation of these ground services for high-density, low-altitude environments.”
This initiative by the Community of Madrid positions the region at the forefront of urban air mobility innovation, promising to transform future transportation landscapes.
