News

Turning Volts to VTOL

• 01 Jan 2018 08:57 PM
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The motors that propel and control electric vertical flight pose design, integration and certification challenges.

ARL Looks to the Future of Vertical Flight

• 01 Jan 2018 02:29 AM
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The ARL Vehicle Technology Directorate is busy working on numerous vertical flight technology projects, and it’s looking out for new ideas from young scientists, collaborative regional campuses, and partners in academia and industry.

From Hummingbird to Cormorant

• 31 Dec 2017 10:11 PM
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In 1997, Yoeli designed, built and flew AD&D’s Hummingbird ducted fan flying platform kit, which was powered by four Hirth piston engines. Yoeli placed a small advertisement for Hummingbird kit aircraft in the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Sport Aviation magazine for the kit.

Commentary: 75 Years of Advancing Vertical Flight

• 30 Dec 2017 11:15 AM
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Seventy-five years ago, on Feb. 25, 1943, 26-year old Edward Katzenberger stood up in a high school gymnasium in Stratford, Connecticut, and called a meeting to order. At that meeting, the participants resolved to establish the American Helicopter Society.

Katzenberger, having joined Sikorsky Aircraft the year before, had been talking with other employees about establishing “The Sikorsky Helicopter Club.”

VerdeGo Green Team

• 22 Dec 2017 11:17 AM
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Erik Lindbergh, grandson of famed aviators Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, has founded VerdeGo Aero, “an innovative new aerospace company with a mission to provide the upcoming multi-billion-dollar urban transportation market with a safe, clean, and quiet hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can fly piloted or autonomously.”

Uber Elevate Joins NASA, Los Angeles

• 22 Dec 2017 11:12 AM
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Uber announced on Nov. 8 that it had signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA for “the development of new Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) concepts and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) that will enable safe and efficient operations of small UAS at low altitudes.” Uber’s participation in NASA’s UTM Project will aid the company in conducting demonstration flights of UberAIR in two US cities by 2020. 

Vahana Prepares for Liftoff

• 22 Dec 2017 10:57 AM
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In early November, A³ by Airbus — the Silicon Valley outpost of the Airbus Group — announced that it had moved its single-seat Vahana eVTOL demonstrator from “The Nest” in Santa Clara, California (shown above), to Pendleton, Oregon.

From Aerovelo to Kitty Hawk (sidebar)

• 06 Nov 2017 01:40 PM
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The Kitty Hawk engineering team is led by Dr. Todd Reichert (aerodynamics) and Cameron Robertson (structures).

While graduate students at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in Canada, Reichert and Robertson worked with Dr. James DeLaurier on the engine-powered “Big Flapper” ornithopter — an aircraft that generates thrust by flapping its wings like a bird, rather than using a propeller. 

Back to Kitty Hawk

• 03 Nov 2017 10:27 PM
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It’s a long way from the windy sand dunes of the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the San Francisco Bay, but the aviation adventure that the Wright brothers launched near Kitty Hawk in 1903 now continues with new electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft being developed by Silicon Valley startups.

Commentary: "Vertical Flight Saves Lives"

• 29 Oct 2017 02:28 PM
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Unprecedented earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, flooding and other natural disasters filled the news over the past several months. Equally prevalent were stories of vertical flight aircraft saving lives, protecting property and providing support after infrastructure was destroyed.