PS&S Architecture and Engineering is to support Varon Vehicles in developing plans for infrastructure for eVTOL aircraft operations in urban areas. Under a memorandum of understanding announced today, the companies will jointly prepare plans and designs for vertiports and other infrastructure that Varon intends to develop in Latin American cities.
In 2019 New Jersey-based PS&S established its Urban Air Mobility Task Force to pursue opportunities for design projects in the sector. This team is managed by architects Jennifer Ganley and Ted Osbourne, who won an award at the Uber Elevate Summit in 2018 for a vertiport concept they developed. It also includes architect and pilot Charles Clauser, who serves on two of NASA’s Transformative Working Group committees and has been a panelist on Vertical Flight Society infrastructure workshops.
Varon Vehicles is developing a concept for networks of vertiports connected via what it calls “virtual lanes” in low-altitude urban airspace. The Colombia-based company intends to roll out its plans across South America and recently partnered with eVTOL aircraft developer Jaunt Air Mobility to work on operational infrastructure.
The company has started work on its home city of Cartagena on Colombia’s coast. It also sees potential for other South American cities—including the Colombian capital Bogota, Lima in Peru, and Santiago in Chile—to be early adopters of urban air mobility services.
