The Vertical Flight Society has been working to advance electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft since 2013, providing technical, professional and business resources to this burgeoning sector. As a leading advocate of the “Electric VTOL Revolution,” VFS has been holding its Electric VTOL Symposiums since 2014, started its Electric VTOL Newsletter in 2016, and launched its Electric VTOL website in 2017.
Thacker Adds Bell Commercial Remit
Michael Thacker, who joined Bell in February 2017 as the executive vice president of Technology and Innovation, has taken over additional responsibilities after the retirement of Susan Griffin, EVP for Commercial Business. As of June 2020, Thacker’s new title is EVP of Innovation and Commercial Business.
With his team of engineers and product developers in Santa Ana, California, Overair CEO Ben Tigner aims to apply Abe Karem’s optimum speed VTOL propulsion technology to urban air mobility (UAM). “Overair is a spinoff of Karem Aircraft, although its business goals are totally different,” he explained.
Can hybrid-electric propulsion improve the efficiency, economics and noise of rotorcraft until better batteries come along?
Lilium — the secretive Munich-area startup whose performance promises for its Lilium Jet electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi have drawn interest from German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who has a PhD in quantum chemistry) and public disbelief from German academics and others — seems to have proven the old saying that, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
On July 30, Urban-Air Port, Ltd., and Hyundai Air Mobility (a Hyundai Motor Group division) announced a partnership to explore new, purpose-built, multifunctional and scalable infrastructure to enable UAM. Hyundai plans to invest $1.5B in UAM over the next five years to create an air vehicle and the supporting mobility ecosystem for UAM operations.
Bell announced on July 17 that it had completed testing its Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) in beyond-visual-line-ofsight (BVLOS) flights. “At the beginning of the year, Bell’s APT proved that it can handle this type of flight through its first BVLOS flight carrying 60 lbs [27 kg] of payload at a testing site in Oklahoma.
On July 27, Visp, Switzerland-based Dufour Aerospace announced that it had completed the first phase of flight testing of its subscale eVTOL technology demonstrator, the aEro 2. “Building on our experience in manned electric flight with our aerobatic plane aEro 1, we are proud to announce that we have completed the first phase of flight testing of our VTOL technology demonstrator aircraft.
In mid-December 2019, Terrafugia, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (ZGH) — a global mobility technology group headquartered in the city of Hangzhou in southeast China’s Zhejiang Province — successfully conducted its first test flight of the TF-2A sub-scale demonstrator. The fullscale TF-2A eVTOL aircraft was unveiled on June 22.
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The Santa Cruz Sentinel captured photos of the Joby Aviation five-seat prototype being airlifted from the company’s facility at Bonny Doon, California (outside of Santa Cruz) on July 7.
