Category Filtering: 'vertiflite'
Based outside of Munich, Germany, Lilium announced on June 11 that it had selected London to be “the base for a world-class software team it plans to develop.” Hundreds of high-end software engineering roles will be created in the city over the next five years as the business seeks to make affordable, electric, on-demand air taxis a reality by 2025.
According to the Daily Sabah newspaper, Istanbul-based UAV manufacturer Baykar is nearing completion of the country’s first eVTOL aircraft, called the “Cezeri” — named after the 12th century Muslim inventor/engineer Ismail al-Jazari.
NEC Corporation has developed an eVTOL testbed to help development autonomous management systems for UAM aircraft. NEC stated that the much larger eVTOL aircraft fly differently than small drones and they need a full-size eVTOL aircraft to obtain the data needed to allow them to make and validate working aircraft management systems.
According to the eFlight Journal on July 2, Chinese drone maker EHang has delivered the first 10 of its two-seat Model 216 eVTOLs to a Chinese operator and eight more to deliver to undisclosed overseas clients, with additional deliveries in China coming. The EHang 216 is a derivative of the single-seat EHang 184 will operate with a special permit to fly under a specific operational risk assessment (SORA) trial rule by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) that allows the operator to carry passengers.
On June 25, The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation announced a strategic partnership to collaborate on future efforts to advance safe urban air mobility (UAM). The strategic partnership will bring together the innovation of Kitty Hawk’s Cora division with Boeing’s scale and aerospace expertise.
Testing of the 65%-scale unmanned demonstrator of the XTI Aircraft TriFan 600 has moved to the Northrop Grumman Utah Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Test Site in Box Elder County, Utah, which was coordinated by the Deseret UAS organization. Meanwhile, the company announced in July that it had selected GE Aviation’s Catalyst engine as the core of the hybrid-electric propulsion system for the TriFan 600.
South Korean industrial giant Hanwha announced on July 11 that it was investing $25M in a spin-off from Karem Aircraft, Inc., dedicated to bringing its all-electric air taxi vehicle, Butterfly, to market. The Butterfly is being developed for Uber Elevate and uses Karem’s Optimum Speed Rotor technology to power a vectored-thrust vehicle with four large rotors mounted on the wings and tail.
At the Paris Air Show, Paris, France-based startup Ascendance Flight Technologies unveiled its Atea hybrid-electric VTOL concept. Atea uses three lift fans powered by electric motors — one in each wing and a fan in the nose of the aircraft — plus a conventional turboprop in the nose. When the aircraft is cruising, the turbine engine charges the batteries for vertical take-offs and landings.
On June 7, New Future Transportation, Inc., (NTF) revealed its eVTOL drive-fly vehicle, ASKA, powered by 14 electric lift fans. ASKA means “flying bird” in Japanese, and NFT said, “it’s the first viable eVTOL vehicle that can both drive on the road and fly autonomously in the sky.” The company unveiled a large 4.9 ft x 8.2 ft (1.5 m x 2.5 m) model of the vehicle at the EcoMotion Event in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 10–13. NFT plans to fly a large (not quite full-scale) unmanned demonstrator vehicle in the first quarter of 2020.
Clark: Originally, there was a Lancair ES, which is a fixed-gear, four-seater aircraft. We thought the path we could go down was to modify that aircraft, apply for an experimental major modification, keep the original air worthiness certificate, and circumnavigate the airworthiness certification. That didn’t work. The FAA put the brakes on it, because we only used the glass, the doors and the very center section of the fuselage. They said it’s a fresh airplane: you have to do an airworthiness certificate.
