Imagine air taxis and drone deliveries becoming a regular part of your neighborhood! It's all part of the exciting topic of advanced air mobility.

Advanced air mobility is a new type of transportation that no longer depends on roads or train tracks. It may seem like science fiction, but there are engineers, air safety workers, and other groups like NASA that are currently working on how to transport people and things around your city or town. 

Check out the activities below to learn more!

Jump to a Section:      Activity: Make Sensors at Home      Activity: Make a Whirlygig      Book Recommendations      Story Time Activity      Collection Connection      Spotlight Story

A computer generated image of a helicopter with the NASA logo flying over a city. In the helicopter is one passenger, and no pilots, suggesting that it's a drone.

There's a new type of air transportation that may be coming to cities and neighborhoods soon. 

What is it? How does it compare to your life now?

Now

Airplanes are usually used to fly long distances.

If you need to travel a short distance, you probably take a car, bus, taxi or train.

Future

Engineers are creating a new type of aircraft that will be used in cities to fly people short distances. 

They use propellers to take off and land vertically (up and down) like a helicopter instead of needing a long runway like airplanes. This allows them to work in cities where there is limited space.

This image shows a computer drawing of a possible design for an advanced air mobility aircraft.

Computer-drawn image of a cityscape with a futuristic type of aircraft flying over the city. It is blue with two long wings. There are 4 propellers on each wing, and a propeller at the end of the tail.

Now

Delivery trucks are used to deliver packages to homes.

Future

This new type of aircraft can be used to deliver packages.

This image shows a computer drawing of what it would be like to have a drone deliver medicine to someone's house.

A computer rendering of a drone delivering medicine to a house.

Now

Pilots fly aircraft.

Future

This new type of aircraft can be driven by pilots but also be programmed to fly without a pilot.

This image shows NASA employees testing out how it would be like to ride in an air taxi through the city of San Francisco.

Photo of four people wearing headphones, riding in a simulator that looks like the inside of a small aircraft cockpit. The simulator has digital screens as windows and on the screens, it looks like the people are flying over a city.

Now

Aircraft uses jet fuel for power.

Future

This new type of aircraft is being designed to use electricity for power.

This image shows two drones that were run test deliveries in downtown Reno, Nevada.

Photo of two small drones flying over the capital city of Reno, Nevada, USA. Both drones look like they are either coming in for a landing or are just taking off. Each drone has 5 arms extending out from a central point, and each arm has an upward facing propeller at the end. One drone has two legs that look like landing gear, pointing down.

Activity: Make Sensors at Home

Best for ages 10 and up

People studying how air taxis, delivery drones and other advanced air mobility can work in neighborhoods are trying to figure out how these aircraft can travel on their own - without a pilot in the aircraft! This requires using sensors to help aircraft "see" things around them without the pilot controlling it. 

Watch this video to learn more about it. 

Can you find your smoke detector? Do you have a thermometer in your medicine cabinet? That means you already have sensors at home!

Watch this video for instructions on how to make your own sensors.

Activity 1

  • Balloon
  • Push pin or tack
  • Tape

Activity 2

  • Crayon
  • Piece of paper
  • Tape
  • Desk or dresser drawer

Activity 3

  • Aluminum foil
  • Tape

Activity: Make a Whirlygig

Best for ages 7 and up, with help from a grown-up

Take a closer look at the Advanced Air Mobility aircraft and drones in the images above. Did you notice that they have many propellers? 

Aircraft that are being designed for use in cities and less open spaces need to be able to take off and land vertically, or up-and-down. A propeller is basically a set of spinning wings and pointed upwards, it allows aircraft to lift upwards quickly instead of needing a long runway.

Create a whirligig, which is like a paper propeller!

Materials Needed:

  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Crayon
  • Tape

1. Watch museum educator Ann Caspari describe the steps to make a whirligig. 

2. Once you make your whirligig, try making changes to it and see what happens. 

  • What happens if you fold the wings slightly in opposite directions?
  • What happens if you add weight to the body of the whirligig? Try it out with paper clips or more tape.

Book Recommendations

Book Cover: Rosie Revere, Engineer

Rosie Revere, Engineer

Written by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts

Best for ages 5 to 9

A book cover with a child with an airplane and the text "Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering"

Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering

Written by Ruth Spiro, illustrated by Irene Chan

Best for ages 0 to 3

A book cover with a woman carrying books and a ruler. The title is "Classified The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross Cherokee Aerospace Engineer."

Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer

Written by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Natasha Donovan

Best for ages 7 to 11

Story Time Activity: Buzzing Fun with Drones

Best for ages 4 to 10, with help from a grown-up

Watch this Flights of Fancy Story Time read by museum educator Ann Caspari and learn about a drone obstacle course competition!

Many organizations are working together to figure out how to use drones to help deliver packages, and help with emergency services. Drones are usually controlled remotely or use sensors to fly on a course.

At the end of the video, follow along and create a 3-D model of your home and neighborhood. Then you can imagine what it would look like if a drone or air taxi flew over it!

Materials Needed:

  • Boxes, like an empty tissue box, or package
  • Piece of flat cardboard for your yard
  • Aluminum foil
  • Other materials that would help make a box look like your home!
  • Scissors
  • Tape

Think About It!

If you were to get a package delivered by a drone, where would it land? Draw a circle where a drone can land.

Collection Connection: Amazon Prime Drone

The Amazon Hybrid Delivery Drone in restoration at the Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

The National Air and Space Museum has an example of a delivery drone on display in the Thomas W. Haas We All Fly gallery—the Amazon Prime Air Hybrid Drone!

Since this is still a new technology and certain structures need to be in place before delivery drones can be used, this drone was used for testing. It can lift off the ground up to 400 feet (which is the length of a baseball field) and fly about 10 miles. 

In this picture, you can see one of our museum conservators working to prepare the drone for display in our museum.

Think about it! What are some things city planners and air traffic controllers need to think about when trying to introduce delivery drones to cities and neighborhoods?

Spotlight Story: Sunita L. Williams, Astronaut for the Starliner spacecraft

Another form of futuristic transportation—space travel for more people. NASA and other companies are working on developing and testing spacecraft that can be used for commercial spaceflight. 

An artists illustration of a conical spacecraft with the Boeing label on the side.
  • This is an illustration of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. 
  • Sunita Williams is one of the NASA astronauts who launched aboard the test flight of the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station. The mission is the company’s first Starliner spacecraft mission with people on board. 
Sunita Williams, an astronaut, emerges through a hatch on the Space Shuttle into a room full of technical equipment. She's smiling.
  • Sunita Williams is a veteran Navy aviator and experienced astronaut, with two space missions under her belt.
  • During her time in the Navy, she logged more than 3000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft. 
A woman in a blue spacesuit stands with her hands on her hip. The background is superimposed to be the American flag with the Earth underneath.
  • Sunita has held many records during her time in space, including ranking sixth on the all-time U.S. endurance list, and second all-time for a woman astronaut after spending a total of 322 days in space on two missions. 
  • Fun Fact: Sunita became the first person to run a marathon in space in 2007. 
  • When the Starliner launched on June 5, 2024, she became the first woman to pilot a new spacecraft on its first flight into space.

Soar Together at Air and Space is made possible by the generous support of Northrop Grumman.

A museum staff member explains something to young visitors.

Did you enjoy these activities?

Sign up for our mailing list to get notified when more activities like this become available, learn about upcoming family days, get reminders to sign up for other family-friendly programs like virtual planetarium shows and story times, and more. 

Get Email Reminders