Chinese drone maker EHang delivered the first batch of “passenger grade” EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs) in June, followed by a second batch in October. The company says these aircraft have now reached customers in Asia, Europe and North America.
On Aug. 21, Volocopter revealed its fourth-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) design, the VoloCity, intended to be its first production aircraft. The company says that the VoloCity has been designed to meet the safety standards specified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) SC-VTOL regulation (see www.eVTOL.news/ EASA) and incorporates user feedback, as well as test data from all previous Volocopter generations, including more than 1,000 test flights.
Whether electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft will soon produce clean, quiet, autonomous air taxis for urban air mobility (UAM) is uncertain, but Dr. Juergen Rauleder says the drive to develop such aircraft is inspiring aerospace engineering students — about half of his class from Germany and the other half from across Europe — like nothing since the Space Race of the 1960s.
On Oct. 3, Boeing NeXt announced that it had flown its Cargo Air Vehicle demonstrator outdoors up to 20 kt (37 km/h). Since its first outdoor flight in February, Boeing has completed more than 90 outdoor flight tests.
On Oct. 3, Mountain View, California-based Kitty Hawk revealed it has been secretly working for two years on a single-seat, high-performance eVTOL called Heaviside (named for the English self-taught electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist, Oliver Heaviside, 1850-1925).
Boeing and Safran have invested in Electric Power Systems (EPS), a company offering a suite of safe, certifiable and lightweight energy storage products that provide high quality power for aerospace and other markets. Boeing HorizonX Ventures and Safran Corporate Ventures jointly invested in EPS during this Series A funding round they announced on Sept. 17.
On Sept. 29, Hyundai Motor Group revealed that it has established an Urban Air Mobility Division and appointed Dr. Jaiwon Shin as its Executive Vice President and Head. Shin was most recently the NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics at NASA, where he shaped the agency’s aeronautics research and development strategy for 11 years.
On Sept. 16, Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Will Roper commented at the annual Air Force Association’s annual national convention that it was following the recent “flying car” developments of the eVTOL industry. As a result, the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson AirForce Base is launching a new initiative called Agility Prime.
The Vertical Flight Society has been leading efforts since 2014 to support the realization of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Over this time, VFS has been working with a growing number of associations, trying to get everyone involved in solving the daunting challenges this new type of aircraft face. Now that terms like eVTOL, air taxis and urban air mobility (UAM) are commonplace, many new associations and organizations have realized that they also need to get involved to support the development of this promising — and potentially transformative — capability.
