WARREN New Jersey, February 26, 2021 – PS&S Architecture and Engineering, PC, (PS&S) announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the firm and Varon Vehicles Corporation, a disruptive mobility infrastructure company based on a novel Urban Air Mobility (UAM) transportation services concept. Varon Vehicles is developing a unique and revolutionary type of aerial mobility system which it calls Infrastructure Networks, to generate new connectivity for cities without the need for physical per-mile construction.
This association will furnish Varon Vehicles with a collaborative framework utilizing the resources of PS&S’s multi-disciplined, integrated design team of experienced architects, engineers, and environmental scientists for the purpose of offering advisement, planning, conceptual design, site and building design, and other related services for Varon Vehicles’ vertiports requirements. Such vertiports will support Varon Vehicles’ operations in Latin America in a variety of transportation services.
PS&S, founded in 1962, created their Urban Air Mobility Task Force (UAM/TF) in May 2019 initially to pursue design opportunities within the aerial transport industry. Led by PS&S CEO John Sartor, the Task Force is managed by architects Ted Osborne and Jennifer Ganley, who together developed an award winning Vertiport solution at Uber Elevate Summit 2018, and by architect and pilot Charles (Chuck) Clauser, who brings years of aviation knowledge and insights to the Team. He serves on two NASA Transformative Working Group committees, was a panelist on Vertical Flight Society Infrastructure Workshops, and served as panelist on Varon Vehicles’ Skyscraper 2020 Think Tanks. Podcast interviews can be found at www.eVTOLInsights.com.
In addition to a staff comprised of architects, interior designers, and the engineering disciplines of civil, survey, structural, mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, and electrical personnel, the firm maintains strong working relationships with a variety of consultants including aerial infrastructure, heliport designers, acoustical engineering, cost estimating, preconstruction services, and related specialties.
“We are pleased to work with Varon Vehicles as they have developed unique and focused Urban Air Mobility eco-system solutions that will provide much needed community-centered aerial transportation services,” said Sartor. “Our extensive experience, project approach and capabilities will support Varon Vehicles’ vision of creating aerial passenger and cargo services across and within urban centers”
“PS&S’s fully integrated design processes provide us with targeted infrastructure solutions that meet the company’s aesthetic, functional and technical imperatives. We are focused on developing attractive, functional, sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective architecture in our communities that meets the needs and vision of our Urban Air Mobility flight operations”, said Felipe Varon, Founder and CEO of Varon Vehicles. “PS&S’s proven record in the nascent UAM industry and their understanding of urban aviation operations was a major factor in choosing them as a design partner, as we continue to grow our world-class network of partners to provide the highest level of safety and service.” He added: “We see Urban Air Mobility in its entirety as a new form of mobility infrastructure with which we’re focusing on solving urban problems”.
Varon Vehicles is developing this innovative transportation system with enabling technologies from the next generation of aviation and advanced air mobility, using currently untapped airspace. It consists of a series of vertiports connected to each other via well-defined low altitude virtual lanes through which their air vehicles will fly, without adding a burden on Air Traffic Control or mixing with traditional aviation. Varon Vehicles vertiports will be placed both inside and outside existing urban structures to alleviate pressure for city growth, providing transportation services to multiple customers like logistics companies, tourism companies, hospitals, law enforcement, and transportation network companies (TNC’s) for services like air taxi.
Contacts
Charles A. Clauser, AIA, PS&S
Felipe Varon, Varon Vehicles Corp.
