Presenter: Sunil Budhdeo, Transport innovation Manager, Coventry City Council
Topic: Challenges faced in setting up and operaring the worlds-first urban airport
Date: Wednesday 21st September 2022
Time: 6:30 for a 7:00pm start
Location: ECB, Coventry University (Room TBA)
DRAFT Synopsis:
You may have seen on the news that Coventry had a world-first demonstration of a fully-operational hub for future electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles – such as air taxis – and autonomous delivery drones, to demonstrate the potential of advanced air mobility globally. This demonstrated how advanced air mobility can cut congestion and air pollution and support a zero-carbon future, integrated with electric vehicles for sustainable public transport. Serving as a blueprint for more than 200 sites planned by Urban-Air Port worldwide over the next five years to meet growing demand, the opening of ‘Air-One®’ puts Global Britain at the forefront of a new age of clean transport.
In this talk, Sunil will describe the challenges faced in setting up and operaring the worlds-first urban airport.
Sunil has over 35 years’ experience in the Traffic, Transport and ITS Industry. He joined the industry as an Installation Engineer, progressing his way up Corporate ladder to a senior position. After several years working within the Industry, he joined Leicester City Council where he initially set standards within the industry and Local Authorities before helping to pave the way forward for the industry to have a common and progressive standard for all operatives.
In 2010 Sunil joined Coventry City council as the UTMC Manager, responsible for the UTMC Highway Network Development team and Managing the Response and Monitoring services, where he successfully implemented the UK’S first 4G Mesh network, used for Pay On Display Machine, RTPI, CCTV, ANPR Cameras and Wireless Vehicle Detection.
Following support for Coventry University’s transport related R&D project, the first demonstration of an Autonomous vehicle was driven on the streets of Coventry, paving the way for autonomous flying taxis.