Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Executives within Tokyo-based Nippon Koei are aiming to make their company Japan’s market leader in the forthcoming eVTOL vertiport industry.
In an exclusive interview with Akihabara News, Nippon Koei Senior Manager of the Global Aviation Department Yasushi Inoue, explains, “We already provide design and consultancy services for helipads, so we need to start as soon as possible to design vertiports so as to be involved in the making of the new standards.”
Inoue, whose background is in air traffic control, is the executive who first got the company interested in eVTOL vertiports. It was an extension of an earlier interest he had developed in the drone industry.
A year ago, only three or four employees were involved in Nippon Koei’s data collection about the eVTOL market, but a big step forward was the firm’s decision to join the Public-Private Committee for Advanced Air Mobility. This March, it made a presentation at the committee’s eighth meeting. At this time it first became known publicly that Nippon Koei was interested in vertiports, focusing on aspects such as airfield maintenance, airspace control, power supplies, environmental assessment, and security.
Last month, Nippon Koei was part of the Kanematsu Corporation-led consortium that received a financial grant from the Osaka Prefectural Government to establish a vertiport management system. Its partners in this consortium, aside from Kanematsu, are Skyports and Chuo Fukken Consultants.
While Inoue admits that the top level of company management has yet to make a full commitment to this market, he says that “they know this is a very chance for Nippon Koei to start a new business.”
For his part, Inoue has a clear vision about how he would like to see the company’s vertiport business proceed.
He sees the first step as providing a planning and design consultancy service to major real estate companies and others, similar to what the firm already does in connection with airports. He believes that major real estate companies which are building new facilities or designing new towns may be attracted to the idea of supplying them with vertiports, turning them into the hubs of future transportation networks.
The second step, as Inoue sees it, is that Nippon Koei–or perhaps a subsidiary that may be established later–should own and operate vertiports itself.
While many observers have assumed that the first vertiports will be repurposed helipads, Inoue sees it the other way around–first will come the entirely new vertiport constructions, and only later, perhaps from around 2030 when the market begins to mature, will some existing helipads be converted.
“The issue is how to install the battery chargers,” he explains. “We have to consider firefighting and rescue operations. Nobody yet knows what standards will be required. It will be much easier to make a new environment within new constructions.”
On the other hand, Inoue recognizes several technical and regulatory challenges which still need to be overcome.
First of all, the Japanese and international companies which are building the first generation of eVTOLs are not yet releasing detailed specifications. This means that, for example, it is impossible to know precisely which kinds of electric charging equipment will be needed at vertiport sites.
Also, Inoue recognizes that the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau may put a drag on Japanese competitiveness if it behaves as it has in the past: waiting on the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to first set their own standards.
“In the aviation field, Japan has always been a follower, not a leader,” Inoue observes ruefully. He notes that within the legacy aircraft industry, Japan has routinely lagged far behind competitors in the United States and Europe.
He hopes, however, that the eVTOL industry could become an opportunity for Japan to shake off this history of delay and failure: “This is a very good chance for Japanese companies to create a success story in the aviation field,” he contends.
Inoue is also clear that he sees Nippon Koei at the forefront of the movement: “We would like to become the top vertiport design company in Japan.”
By 2030, he would also like to see Nippon Koei regularly designing vertiports overseas, especially for developing nations in Southeast Asia.
Nippon Koei, established in 1946, is a broad-based engineering consultancy service for infrastructure projects, including for airport design. It employs more than 6,000 people.
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