Category Filtering: 'vertiflite'
On May 29, Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based Alaka’i Technologies revealed a “non-flying prototype” of its hydrogen-powered Skai electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The unveiling was held in Newbury Park, California, at the facilities of BMW-owned global creative consultancy Designworks, which was contracted for the vehicle design, with a focus on the passenger experience.
The third annual Uber Elevate Summit touched down at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, on June 11-12, 2019 — just one month after the Silicon Valley mobility company raised $8.1 billion when its shares (UBER) started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Electric/hybrid-electric propulsion enables new vertical flight aircraft configurations that have tremendous potential — but also significant challenges — to bring a radical transformation of air transportation for unmanned package delivery, unmanned logistics, personal air travel, air taxis, urban air mobility (UAM), regional air mobility (RAM) and many other missions.
The $2M GoFly Prize competition has completed its second phase and has so far received more interest than ever imagined. The idea to fund safe and innovative designs for a personal flying machine was a longtime dream for Gwen Lighter and she worked for years to get it started, including getting help from the Vertical Flight Society and other experts (see “AHS Supports GoFly!,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2017).
A VFS panel and other discussions at Heli-Expo provided an opportunity for the commercial helicopter operating community to ask some tough questions about eVTOL technology.
For the second year in a row, the Vertical Flight Society organized a panel discussion at Heli-Expo to brief the civil helicopter industry and operators on electric- and hybrid-electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft opportunities and challenges.
Bell and its partners talk about its Nexus eVTOL and the team’s approach to creating a revolutionary new type of aircraft.
As its name suggests, the Bell Nexus hybrid-electric VTOL is all about making connections.
On April 4, the EHang Air Mobility Group, based in Guangzhou, China, and the Austrian FACC aviation company flew media representatives on demonstration flights in the two-seat EHang 216 eVTOL. The flights were conducted in the Generali Arena in Vienna, Austria. EHang is part of the Urban Air Mobility Project — established with FACC and 4GAMECHANGERS / ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 — which is intended to be open to others interested in supporting the initiation and operation of eVTOL air taxis in Austria by 2020.
Opener, the developer of the BlackFly electric Personal Aerial Vehicle (ePAV) for consumer travel, has appointed a president, Ben Diachun, the company announced on April 2. He will report to Marcus Leng, Opener founder and CEO. Diachun comes from Scaled Composites; Burt Rutan lauded Diachun, stating, “Ben Diachun’s spark of genius enhances any company he joins.... As an engineer, Ben played a key role in the creation of 14 revolutionary experimental aircraft, and as the President of Scaled Composites, he developed a talented team, explored new innovations and ensured our growth.”
Englewood, Colorado-based XTI Aircraft Company announced in a March 23 tweet that it was making progress with their 65%-scale hybrid-electric VTOL demonstrator: “Finalizing assembly and preparing for first flight … new motors arrive this week, fly soon after!!”
Volkswagen AG, the owner of the Audi brand, announced on March 21 that it and its partners would build a full-scale demonstrator of its Pop.Up Next multi-modal eVTOL system and fly it by the end of 2020. The joint Airbus-Audi-Italdesign system was originally proposed only as a feasibility concept (before Audi was added), then just called “Pop.Up,” in March 2017, although generally similar in appearance to the concurrent Airbus CityAirbus eVTOL approach.
