虽然大量款项投资于开发出租车，无人机和其他电力起飞和起飞工艺品（EVTOL），但必要的基础设施却取得了后座。但是，随着英国政府和韩国现代汽车集团的支持，英国一家初创企业计划新一代迷你城市“机场”的计划正在起飞。

Construction has just started on what is claimed to be the world's first operational eVTOL hub, in a parking lot in the city of Coventry. Three weeks of cargo drone flight demonstrations are planned for this April, says Andrea Wu, co-founder and chief design officer of the hub developer Urban-Air Port Ltd. (UAPL).

To save space, UAPL's hubs do away with separate airfields and enclose the whole facility within a compact steelwork structure with a 60% smaller footprint that traditional facilities. Coventry’s unit will be 46.5 meters in diameter with a central 17.5-m opening for craft access, says Wu. As a demonstration hub, it will include passenger, logistics and control spaces.

The developer is essentially offering modular kits with optional extras, depending on the facility's planned use and scale, says Wu. Over the last six months, "we've had numerous enquiries globally," she adds. The company hopes to provide 200 hubs around the world in the next five years.

UAPL was launched early last year when Hyundai's advanced air mobility unit invested $1 million, matched by a $1.6-million grant from the Future Flight Challenge of the governmental U.K. Research and Innovation (UKRI). UAPL had "the potential to revolutionize cities across the world, making them more connected, cleaner and accelerating our green economic recovery," noted Gary Cutts, the Future Flight Challenge director at the time.

Hyundai stepped up its investment in late January, acquiring a minority share through its newly created Supernal LLC division. As part of the deal, Supernal's global head of partnerships and business development, Adam Slepian, will join UAPL's board. And Supernal's Matthew Sattler is joining UAPL’s board of advisors.

The new alliance will "supercharge the rollout of sustainable, intermodal and scalable ground infrastructure that will unleash the future of advanced air mobility globally,” believes UAP's founder and executive chairman Ricky Sandhu, who is courting new investors.

For the South Koreans, "it is essential we not only develop electric air vehicles, but also help shape the broader advanced air mobility market from the ground up," notes Jaiwon Shin, Supernal's CEO and president of Hyundai's urban air mobility division. Hyundai launched Supernal in November to advance its "future mobility" strategy, which aims to start commercial flights in 2028.

这家汽车制造商是投资快速增长的EVTOL部门的众多公司之一。乌克里预测，全球市场将在2035年价值740亿美元，包括基础设施服务。仅英国仅将在2030年到2030年运营76,000个无人机。UAPL预测全球城市空气流动市场将增长9％，达到12.7％到2027年十亿美元。

但是，尽管UAPL称，尽管主要重点仍然放在手工艺开发上，但地面基础设施是该行业的主要障碍。该公司估计，去年对固定基础设施的投资仅占手工艺开发的3％。