In the seven years since 100 invited visionaries gathered in Arlington, Virginia, for the first annual VFS Transformative Vertical Flight (TVF) Workshop, the dream of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft has progressed from something perceived as a wild-eyed fantasy promoted by secretive companies to a diverse and full-fledged industry.
For the past 11 years, Joby Aviation has been on a quest to develop the ultimate electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, but few details of the company’s aircraft and progress have been shared with the public.
That changed in January when Joby stepped out of the shadows and released images of the production version of its all-electric, five-seat tiltrotor in conjunction with the announcement of a $590M Series C financing that brought the company’s total funding, including previous rounds, to $720M.
On Dec. 31, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for “Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.” The long-awaited NPRM, docket No. FAA-2019-1100, is expected to result in a “Final Rule” that will require remote ID for most drones, exempting government UAS, some amateur-build drones, and micro air vehicles (MAVs) and toy drones weighing less than 8.8 oz (204 g).
EHang flew its two-passenger 216 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (unmanned) for a crowd of around 100 in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Jan. 7, in conjunction with the 2020 North Carolina Transportation Summit. This was the first free-flight public eVTOL air taxi demonstration in the US.
On Jan. 13, the US Transportation Research Board held a panel on “Automation Technology and Transportation,” with senior US government transportation officials. Notably, Jay Merkle the executive director of the FAA’s UAS Integration Office, spoke about urban air mobility (UAM) aircraft.
Hanwha Systems $25M investment in California-based Overair — a spinoff of Karem Aircraft — reached its final approvals, the Korean aerospace systems giant announced on Jan. 15. With the investment, Hanwha now owns a 30% stake in Overair, which is developing the eVTOL Butterfly quad-tiltrotor for the Uber Elevate mission.
On Feb. 4, Wisk announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a passenger transport trial in Canterbury, New Zealand. Wisk’s Cora two-seat eVTOL has been testing in the Canterbury region since 2017. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New Zealand, Wisk is an independent company backed by The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation (see “Cora + Boeing = Wisk,” Vertiflite Jan/Feb 2020, pg. 40).
The Bell Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70 biplane tailsitter drone completed its first beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight on Jan. 16, traveling along a 10-mile (16-km) path at Choctaw Nation test site under the FAA UAS Integration Pilot Program (UASIPP).
On Feb. 10, Reddit editor Red_Jensen posted a high-resolution image of a large unmanned aircraft hovering at the Mojave Air and Space Port in southern California. The aircraft — N871YT, registered to Toyota — appears to have six lift propellers and no forward thruster. It may be designed as a cargo transporter, with twin outriggers and twin tails.
