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.
Airbus, Audi and Italdesign brought a quarter-scale radio-control model of the multi-modal Pop.Up Next mobility system to the Amsterdam Drone Week conference in late November. The Pop.Up Next system uses an unmanned VTOL flight module to transport a passenger-carrying pod by air; the pod can also be transported by ground in an autonomous four-wheeled electric-powered chassis.
On Nov. 14, 2018, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) announced that it had conducted two days of meetings with European regulators on the development of eVTOL aircraft and technologies. According to the press release, “Thirty senior eVTOL company figures from eight countries met with EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), the European Commission and SESAR JU (Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking) over two days in Cologne and Brussels to discuss this burgeoning sector of the aviation industry.”
On Nov. 6, VerdeGo Aero, headquartered in the Research Park at the Daytona Beach campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, announced that it would be providing its Integrated Distributed Electric Propulsion (IDEP) technology platform to enable future hybrid and battery-electric variants of the Transcend Air Vy 400 aircraft.
In October, NEXA Advisors and the Vertical Flight Society announced the prospectus for a new study, "Urban Air Mobility (UAM) — Economics and Global Markets." This groundbreaking study will cover market and economic forecasts from 2020 to 2040 for 70 metropolitan areas, including technologies, policies, markets, infrastructure and economics. NEXA Advisors, a NEXA Capital company and the lead underwriting sponsor, has a well-known record of performing “multi-client” research for the aerospace sector.
On Nov. 1–2, more than 400 representatives from government, industry and academia gathered in Seattle, Washington, to attend an industry day marking the launch of NASA’s UAM Grand Challenge plan, which is designed to provide an integrated vehicle and airspace operational environment for use as a “proving ground” for UAM aircraft developers.
The Electric VTOL News website now catalogs more than 130 eVTOL aircraft concepts — from the silly to the serious — and is an essential reference for developers and those following this exciting new domain. What information and references are available are included on the website. Concepts are generally publicized to attract interest, investment, talent and/or customers. Some of the innovative eVTOL concepts are backed by extensive research, while others are only notional with their feasibility still to be determined.
“Silent, Clean, Autonomous, Amphibious, Safe, Revolutionary.” These are the words SKYLYS Aircraft CEO Gary Chorostecki uses to describe the SKYLYS AO, a prototype electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle being shared with the public in detail for the first time today.
On Nov. 14, 2018, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) announced that it had conducted two days of meetings with European regulators on the development of eVTOL aircraft and technologies.
According to the press release, "Thirty senior eVTOL company figures from eight countries met with EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), the European Commission and SESAR JU (Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking) over two days in Cologne and Brussels to discuss this burgeoning sector of the aviation industry."
In 2017, NASA hired two teams of consultants to study the viability of different urban air mobility (UAM) use cases.
On Nov. 6, 2018, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) released highlights of the two in-depth UAM reports to the public.
