News

Lilium Flies Five-Seat Prototype

• 30 Jun 2019 01:21 PM
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Munich-based Lilium unveiled its new five-seater air taxi Lilium Jet on May 16, after the prototype had made its unmanned maiden flight on May 4 at 08:03 am. The Lilium Jet uses small electric fans, which the company calls “jet engines.” According to Lilium’s news release, “The full-scale, full-weight prototype is powered by 36 all-electric jet engines that allow it to take-off and land vertically, while achieving remarkably efficient horizontal, or cruise, flight.

CityAirbus Demonstrator Lifts Off

• 30 Jun 2019 01:20 PM
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On May 3, Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even tweeted, “Congratulations to the Airbus and Siemens teams who performed the first successful take-off of the CityAirbus demonstrator in Donauwörth. Next step: flight envelope expansion in Manching!” However, the photo was of the aircraft on the ground with the test team.

Boeing CAV Flies Free

• 30 Jun 2019 01:17 PM
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The Boeing Company announced on May 2 that it had completed the first outdoor flight tests of its Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV). In a safe and controlled environment, the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully took off, hovered, transitioned to forward flight and then landed safely.

PAL-V to Develop Electric Flying Car

• 30 Jun 2019 01:15 PM
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In April 2019, PAL-V and Royal NLR (Netherlands Aerospace Centre) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for mutual cooperation to develop an autonomous eVTOL flying car. The two organizations aim for a market introduction within 10 years. PAL-V is currently finalizing the development of the PAL-V Liberty (shown), which it expects to be the world’s first commercial flying car next year.

LIFT Announces Demo Tour

• 30 Jun 2019 01:13 PM
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LIFT Aircraft gave the public an opportunity to check out their Hexa autonomous single-seat eVTOL prototype at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and festival in Austin, Texas, held this year on Mar. 8–17. Attendees of the Smart Mobility Summit got to sit in the Hexa demonstrator and simulate flying in the ultralight eVTOL using virtual reality (VR) goggles.

Uber Elevate Touches Down in DC

• 30 Jun 2019 11:30 AM
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The third annual Uber Elevate Summit touched down at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, on June 11-12, 2019 — just one month after the Silicon Valley mobility company raised $8.1 billion when its shares (UBER) started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Commentary: VFS Expands Support to eVTOL

• 30 Jun 2019 10:23 AM
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Electric/hybrid-electric propulsion enables new vertical flight aircraft configurations that have tremendous potential — but also significant challenges — to bring a radical transformation of air transportation for unmanned package delivery, unmanned logistics, personal air travel, air taxis, urban air mobility (UAM), regional air mobility (RAM) and many other missions.

Uber Elevate Summit 2019 Agenda

• 12 Jun 2019 01:11 PM
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Uber held its third annual summit on June 11-12 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. According to the company, "The Uber Elevate Summit brought together 1200+ attendees for 2 days of technical sessions, hands-on demos, and evening networking events." This page is a web capture from https://www.uber.com/us/en/elevate/summit/2019/attending, June 2019.

Uber Elevate Summit 2019 News, Photos & Videos

• 12 Jun 2019 01:09 PM
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Uber held its third annual Elevate Summit on June 11-12 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. VFS was there in force, live-tweeting the event (https://twitter.com/electricVTOL) and posting photos real-time on Twitter and Facebook.

VFS has an album of 60 pictures from the event in the Vertical Flight Photo Gallery.

Forum 75 eVTOL Presentations

• 10 Jun 2019 01:06 PM
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The Vertical Flight Society held its 75th Annual Forum & Technology Display, the world's leading international event on vertical flight technology, on May 13-16, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This special 75th anniversary event spanned four days and included a record 280+ technical papers, plus 75 presentations and discussions by leaders in industry, the military, government agencies and academia. Forum 75 was a spectacular success with a record 1,400 attendees celebrated 75 years of advancing vertical flight. Find out more about Forum 75 proceedings papers, photos and more!