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.

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. 

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.

CityAirbus Starts Spinning

• 25 Oct 2017 02:26 PM
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Airbus Helicopters announced that its four-seat, quad-ducted propeller eVTOL, the CityAirbus, was getting close to its maiden flight planned for late 2018.

Dubai is Electric

• 25 Oct 2017 02:23 PM
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Germany’s Volocopter (previously known as “e-volo”) conducted the first public flight of its VC200 in Dubai on Sept. 25 (shown). Flight testing of the prototype for Volocopter’s 2X two-seat production vehicle will “be used for the world’s first self-flying taxi service set to be introduced” by Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). 

Lilium Raises $90M

• 25 Oct 2017 02:20 PM
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In early September, Munich-based Lilium announced that it had raised $90M in a Series B funding round. Investors included Chinese tech giant Tencent; private banking and asset management firm LGT; U.K.-based venture capitalist firm Atomico (a Series A investor); and Obvious Ventures.