AutoFlightX GmbH, based near Munich, Germany, unveiled its full-sized V600 prototype on April 10, 2019, at the AERO Friedrichshafen 2019 aviation trade show. The two-place, all-electric AutoFlightX V600 has six propellers for lift fitted on two booms parallel to the fuselage and a pusher propeller in the rear for forward flight.
A new short course on eVTOL Design has been added to the VFS video-on-demand educational series:
The Electric VTOL News™ eNewsletter started in 2016 as a means to inform the attendees of the VFS Transformative Vertical Flight Workshops and interested parties of news in the eVTOL world. Since then, it has grown to be a regular report on eVTOL aircraft, progress and developments. Since April 2017, it has also highlighted new aircraft in the World eVTOL Aircraft Directory and other resources on the eVTOL.news website.
On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, the US House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Committee's Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing on "Looking Forward: Aviation 2050" that included testimony on Urban Air Mobility (UAM) by Eric Allison, Head of Uber Elevate. The video lasts 2 hours 22 minutes.
The Vertical Flight Society hosted two sessions at the Helicopter Association International (HAI) Heli-Expo 2019 trade show held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
On Monday, March 4, VFS Executive Director Mike Hirschberg, Executive Director of VFS presented on The Future of Vertical Flight. Slides are available and the video recording has been posted.
For many entrants in the race to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the speculative air taxi market is the prize at the end of the finish line — one that could someday yield orders for thousands of aircraft to ferry millions of passengers around congested cities. However, with numerous regulatory and social barriers standing in the way of that market — on top of the very real technological challenges associated with building and flying eVTOL aircraft — this type of on-demand urban air mobility (UAM) could take many years to come to fruition.
Austin, Texas-based LIFT Aircraft revealed itself on Dec. 11, 2018. The LIFT Hexa is an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) single-passenger wingless multicopter aimed primarily at tourism and short distance travel. It completed its first manned test flight on Nov. 1, 2018.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest assembly of the latest and greatest consumer technology from around the world — from phones and TVs, to drones, cars and, yes, even electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and a yacht — kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 8–11, 2019.
The sell-out 8th Biennial Autonomous VTOL Technical Meeting & 6th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium was a phenomenal success, with some 375 attendees. A series of articles in this issue of Vertiflite highlight the news and announcements from this event.
On Feb. 7, Eric Fanning, the President and CEO of Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) testified in a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing entitled, “The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Investing in our Nation’s Infrastructure Cannot Wait.” In his remarks, Fanning spoke extensively of the potential of UAM.
