NEOM Drones & Flying Cars Concept of Operations

NEOM, a city built from scratch that is the size of Belgium located in the northwestern portion of Saudi Arabia, is a $500B project that is perhaps the most unique smart city and infrastructure endeavor in history. Besides aiming to have an artificial moon and robo-nurses for its future inhabitants, it is highly revolutionary in its urban planning, transportation, and logistics vision. It is designed as a 150 km "Line" with hyperloop-like networks connecting 4 different settlement locations with underground networks for cargo package deliveries. However, what is most interesting is that it will be a 100% car-free city from the start. Drones, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), and all types of future electric and perhaps supersonic aircraft are part of this multi-dimensional mobility solution.

As a consultant in 2020, I created the "Advanced Air Mobility Vision 2030" for the city where I proposed types of vehicles, use cases, and a detailed Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) architecture that culminated in a vision document, ConOps, and implementation timeline. The ConOps was a detailed paper outlining future stakeholder responsibilities, high-level system architecture, and the required digital & automated services that would enable flying cars and drones to carry people and goods across the NEOM network. This culminated in the proposal of a broad airspace concept & design outlining rules & regulations, 3D layering of the airspace, and the location of future vertiports in and around the new NEOM airport based on current and anticipated ICAO legal frameworks. At the finalization of the project, the ConOps document was fed to engineers to create the detailed technical architecture for AAM in the city.

The final part of the project involved the proposal of an implementation timeline not just for the airspace and UTM-related aspects but infrastructure, vehicle deployment, and regulatory frameworks.