Category Filtering: 'electric-rotorcraft'
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology has only become a reality in the past decade, but one battery-powered electric helicopter briefly made it off the ground more than 35 years ago.
Skyworks Aeronautics Corp. announced in July that it had selected Newport News, Virginia-based Eagle Technologies, LLC, to design and fabricate the rotor system for the Skyworks’ eGyro electrically powered gyrodyne.
On June 29, Rotor X Aircraft Manufacturing Company unveiled a design for a six-seat, all-electric, quad-rotor helicopter called the eTransporter, which the company says is ideal for air taxi operations, package delivery, search and rescue, personnel recovery and medevac operations.
Whether it’s a short jaunt or a longer journey, one eVTOL start-up is taking the road less traveled to make vertical flight more accessible to the common man.
MENLO PARK, Calif., August 24, 2021 — HyPoint, the company developing zero carbon-emission turbo air-cooled hydrogen fuel cell systems for aviation and urban air mobility, today announced that it has entered into a multi-phase collaborative development agreement with Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC), a pioneer in advanced rotorcraft and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) platforms and technologies, for the development and certification of hydrogen fuel cell systems for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle applications.
For the past five years, Tier 1 Engineering of Santa Ana, California, has been flight-testing and refining an electric-powered version of the Robinson R44 — the world’s best-selling general aviation helicopter for the past 22 years — with nearly 7,500 delivered.
April 19, 2021 — a day for the record books: the successful first flight of an aircraft on another planet. Lifting off from the surface of Mars to a modest 10 ft (3 m), NASA’s diminutive Ingenuity helicopter made a humble start that holds huge significance for future flights.
After a full year of precautionary measures related COVID-19, VFS continues to provide webinars on relevant vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and electric VTOL (eVTOL) developments to keep members learning and actively engaged.
Among the many luminaries in rotorcraft history, the name Frank Piasecki stands out alongside that of Igor Sikorsky. While Sikorsky flew America’s first successful helicopter in 1939, young Piasecki was close on his heels. In 1943, he became the second designer to fly a successful helicopter in the US (see sidebar).
Skyworks Aeronautics Corp. announced on Feb. 8, a $100M investment commitment from GEM Global Yield LLC SCS, a fund of the Luxembourg Global Emerging Markets Group (GEM).
