Fairfax, Virginia, USA — The Vertical Flight Society, the world’s leading non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, salutes the unveiling of the Bell Nexus hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft today at CES 2019, the world's largest consumer technology show.
In a year-end report, Kitty Hawk Corporation provided an update on the two-seat Cora eVTOL aircraft first unveiled in March 2018, which is now undergoing autonomous flight-testing in California and New Zealand.
On Sept. 10, 2018, the Bristol, UK-based startup, Vertical Aerospace, Ltd., revealed that it had built and flown the UK’s first full-scale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
During my ten-week NASA Aeromechanics Branch internship, I focused on what is considered by some as the most ambitious and ground-breaking new market of the modern aviation industry: urban air mobility (UAM). Even before The Jetsons’ first appearance on TV in the early 1960s, the world has hungered for a possible future of commuting to work by sky. Yet, what started out as a fantasy has slowly turned into an increasingly urgent need.
At the National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAABACE) held Oct. 16–18, 2018 in Orlando, Florida, flying car company Terrafugia announced that it had down-selected to a single approach for its multi-modal passenger and cargo-carrying transportation system. The company was previously considering two approaches for its TF-2 eVTOL aircraft: one with separate lift and thrusting propellers and the other with tilting propellers.
Boeing and SparkCognition announced plans in November to launch a joint venture, SkyGrid, which will develop a software platform to ensure the safe, secure integration of autonomous cargo and passenger air vehicles in the global airspace. Using blockchain technology, artificial intelligence-enabled dynamic traffic routing, data analytics and cybersecurity features, SkyGrid's platform will go beyond unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) traffic management (UTM).
In November, Roland Berger, a strategy consulting firm headquartered in Munich, Germany, released a study dubbed, “Urban air mobility — The rise of a new mode of transportation.” In it, the company noted that “pilot projects are already scheduled to go live in cities like Dubai, Singapore, Los Angeles and Dallas in the early 2020s,” and predicted about 3,000 passenger drones would be in use by 2025, followed by exponential growth; Roland Berger forecast that, by 2050, “close to 100,000 passenger drones could be on the move worldwide and serve as air taxis, airport shuttles and intercity flight services.”
Bell announced new membership in its eVTOL air taxi development team. In addition to various companies revealed over the past several months — including Garmin, Honeywell and Safran — the Ft. Worth, Texas, company announced that Thales, Electric Power Systems (EPS) and Moog would also join its team.
On Nov. 29, the Workhorse Group flew its SureFly hybrid-electric quadcopter demonstrator at the Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio. The SureFly performed slow forward hovering flights of approximately 100 yards (100 m) at skid heights up to about 10 ft (3 m).
Guangzhou-based drone and eVTOL company EHang signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Lyon, France, in late November to establish its first European research center, which is expected to create about 50 jobs over the next three years. Ehang also entered into a strategic partnership with Austrian aerospace group FACC in November.
