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Hanwha Systems CEO Kim Yeon-chul signed a memorandum of understanding on July 3rd in Seoul with Korea Airports Corporation President Son Chang-wan to partner on the development of UAM enabling technologies, including passenger boarding services, end-to-end integration, infrastructure planning, and airspace development tailored specifically for the commercial deployment of on-demand aerial mobility services.

Hanwha Systems UAM Conceptualization. Image // Hanwha Systems

Hanwha Systems previously established themselves within the aerial mobility sphere last year after investing substantially in Overair, a spinoff of the Uber Elevate Partnering Karem Aircraft company. Korea Airports Corporation intends to bring the construction and architectural experience commensurate with the firms’ management of 14 airports in South Korea. They also manage the Korea Civil Aviation Training Center. The partnership is also opportune as the integration between last-mile trips and transfers from fixed wing aircraft can be streamlined as development efforts are undertaken by KAC.

The MoU represents the expansion of aerial mobility frameworks in Asia, as nearby countries such as China continue to advance the progress and breadth of aerial mobility offerings that will soon be available to the public on an on-demand basis.

Kim Yeon-chul is quoted at the press conference stating that Hanwha Systems is to become a “global UAM solutions provider” by the year 2025.

Why it’s important: Hanwha and KAC represent a powerful partnership that allows for considerable experience to be leveraged from both air frame development and infrastructure know-how fields. Additionally, this MoU limits the exposure of each company within the aerial mobility industry and will allow for a more seamless integration of aerial mobility flight paths and vertiports at Korean airports already under management by KAC. Additionally, Hanwha System’s previous investments in UAM airframe design and development companies has allowed them to gain experience while limiting the large capital expenditures required to stand up a company from scratch.

Source // Business Korea, Korea IT Times, Hanwha Systems Press Release

Crown Consulting‘s vision of the future aerial mobility market

In 2018, NASA selected Crown Consulting to aid in understanding the potential barriers to creating the aerial mobility industry. After creating that study, Crown is now extending its analysis by partnering with QSS (Quantitative Scientific Solutions) to understand how eVTOL ride quality might affect community acceptance. While Crown Consulting will facilitate the analysis, QSS will assist in collecting the and assembling the relevant data.

According to QSS and Crown Consulting, past work has related passenger comfort to noise and vibration, but no measure has yet been developed relating acceptance to the combination of noise, vibration, and vehicle motion. Since eVTOLs will certainly have different motion dynamics from helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, QSS and Crown consider these motion dynamics a key variable in determining the probability of community acceptance. Research and data collection will focus gaining an understanding of how future passengers may react to new motion dynamics.

QSS is a scientific and technical consulting and analytics firm based in Arlington, VA. Its mission is to provide creative solutions to the most challenging scientific problems through hard data, and it utilizes the most advanced technologies available to conduct analysis.

Crown Consulting’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Tom Edwards, commented, “This work will enable resolution of a major barrier to successful implementation of UAM.” Crown considers itself an expert in providing data and analytics to both private and government organizations. Read the full study so far provided by Crown Consulting to NASA here.

Why it’s important: With the advanced data collection and analysis technologies now available through companies like QSS, it has become possible to create deep understandings of how new innovations in air travel might affect people in the near future. Through partnering with QSS, Crown Consulting will be able to understand with a fair degree of certainty how people will react to eVTOLs’ new motion dynamics before aircraft even enter the flight testing stages or manufacturing stages. This information can help drive both vehicle designs and government regulations.

Ascent Urban Air Mobility, a new aerial mobility company, has announced that it will commence services in Thailand by the end of this year. Although Ascent currently uses traditional helicopters, its aerial mobility business model follows those that will soon come with advanced electric VTOLS. Ascent first launched in the Philippines around May of 2019.

Ascent Founders Darren Tng and Lionel Sinai-Sinelnikoff

Although charter helicopters have existed in Thailand (mainly for tourism), Ascent’s offering will now serve transportation needs between major activity centers such as Bangkok, Chonburi, and Rayong, and leisure destinations such as Hua Hin or Pattaya. Unlike any other helicopter service in the area, Ascent offers by-the-seat booking through a smartphone app. Ascent’s mission is to enable busy customers to skip traffic and reach remote destinations with ease and now (with the advent of COVID-19) minimized physical contact. By serving these hubs, Ascent aims at contributing to the growth of businesses and the economy in line with the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), Thailand 4.0, and Smart City initiatives. Seat prices will start at about the equivalent of $250 USD.

Passengers on board an Ascent Urban Air Mobility Aircraft. Each seat will start at $250 per ticket.

Lionel Sinai-Sinelnikoff, one of the founders of Ascent, said, “The dynamism of Bangkok combined with this new context (COVID-19), makes mobility a great challenge for the business community, commuters, and tourists. This in turn effects the economy, the environment, and people’s well-being. In addition, public economic initiatives like the EEC require enhanced mobility solutions. With Ascent, we believe we can elevate mobility to the skies to better connect locations and skip traffic seamlessly in a safe and more affordable manner. We are excited to open this new chapter of Ascent with partners such as Advance Aviation and SFS Aviation, which have driven the industry in Thailand for so long and will ensure our users with the highest operational and safety standards.”

Part of the Ascent Urban Air Mobility team

Why it’s import: Although other urban air mobility companies based in the U.S use a similar business model to Ascent (such as BLADE Urban Air Mobility and Uber Copter), Ascent’s launch in Thailand will make the country one of Asia’s first to host aerial mobility services. Ascent’s customer sourcing and management as well as fleet management softwares will likely plug into more advanced electric aircraft once they become available.

Aerospace design company Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of The Boeing Company, recently entered a contract with DARPA to further advance the applications of active flow control methods as the primary means of aircraft design and flight path control, and to demonstrate the ability of this approach to maintain stability and control in flight.

Active flow control actuators, or effectors, as they are called, form the flow of air around aircraft’s surfaces which allow for controllability without moving parts, leading to increased efficiency and better integration. DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that’s based in Arlington, Va., announced a contract worth $7.1 million last Friday in partnership with AFS to work on “Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors”. The project is nicknamed CRANE.

These novel flow control methods that eliminate the classical control surfaces normally found on aircraft such as elevators, ailerons, rudders, and secondary devices such as spoilers and trim tabs allow for a new realm of possibility for military and civilian aircraft. While the likely direct application of these effectors will be for classified defense projects, other secondary use cases could include eVTOL aircraft and aerial mobility technologies. Some existing eVTOL designs have already adopted this methodology and use modulation of power levels between electric ducted fan motors to control flight path. The CRANES project could take this design approach a step further, and create the pathway for dynamic surfaces that can modulate shape to redirect flow and result in a completely passive design.

Aurora Flight Sciences has been working on design and development of an eVTOL prototype for longer than most newer eVTOL outfits, and was acquired in 2017 by Boeing. Since the acquisition, the company debuted the first flight of the AFS/Boeing Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) and has continued with their flight test campaign. While effectors will likely serve a larger benefit for military R&D projects, they could be applied in simplistic forms to aerial mobility designs sooner than expected. The contract is set to complete in the summer of 2021.

Why it’s important: A variety of emergent aerospace technologies are being actively researched through government contracts, and while they may not yet be ready for direct application to aerial mobility or eVTOL designs, their potential benefits could be realized 5-10 years in the future as wide spread commercial application of on-demand mobility services becomes more commonplace. The unique configuration of many eVTOL aircraft would serve to benefit from effectors, as ducted fans and propulsory could potentially serve as the only “control surface” of the aircraft, reducing maintenance costs and increasing efficiency.

Source // DARPA, Aurora Flight Sciences

Honeywell has introduced its innovative new thermal management system, the Micro Vapor Cycle System (MicroVCS). The MicroVCS is an efficient, lightweight thermal management system that uses advanced technology to push cold air or liquid to cool compartments, electric components and power systems. Designed specifically for the emerging aerial mobility industry, the MicroVCS is both lighter and completely oil-free with fewer moving parts, meaning that maintenance and repair are much simpler; an important factor to consider when air taxis will most likely record flights at a higher rate than conventional aircraft. 

“Aircraft in the emerging UAM or all-electric categories will need to be lightweight and avoid significant downtime for maintenance. It will also be extremely important to maintain battery temperature and ensure passenger comfort,” said Tom Hart, VP and general manager of Air & Thermal Systems at Honeywell Aerospace. “Our new MicroVCS is up to 35% lighter and 20% more efficient than existing systems, which helps address these major concerns.”

Notably, the MicroVCS will first be implemented in Eviation’s Alice, an all electric commuter aircraft. According to Omer Bar-Yohay, CEO at Eviation, “In an all-electric aircraft, every ounce counts, so we needed an efficient way to provide cooling comfort for passengers in our fleet without adding excessive weight. Our adoption of the MicroVCS will ensure better aircraft uptime and reduce our overall operating costs while enhancing our passengers’ experience.”

Why it’s important: The MicroVCS is the latest in a series of products Honeywell is developing specifically for aerial mobility. Others include a Compact Fly-by-Wire System, RDR-84K Radar, actuators, and lightweight inertial navigation systems. Having been a reliable and experienced aircraft systems manufacturer for decades, Honeywell’s contributions to the aerial mobility industry will be vital for the continued success of the industry.

Source // Intelligent Aerospace

The Zhejiang Geely Holding Group recently unveiled the prototype design of the Terrafugia TF-2A eVTOL aircraft, and announced that they have already begun flight tests as well. The newer design is a clear upgrade over the previous demonstrator that was revealed in December 2019. 

Based on the aesthetics of a tiger shark, the TF-2A features a large upper wing, H-shaped tail, eight lift propellers for vertical takeoff or landing (VTOL) as well as one rear propeller for horizontal flight. According to Geely, the design should make certification easier to obtain as opposed to the more common tilt-rotor designs in the industry. For example, the New Hampshire Senate recently motioned to pass a number of bills, one of which pertained to the topic of aerial mobility. HB-1517, “An Act Relative to Roadable Aircraft,” adds the words “roadable aircraft” to existing laws for vehicles concerning things like inspections and crashes, requiring the roadable aircraft to be “required to take off and land from a suitable airstrip and shall be prohibited from taking off and landing from any public roadway, unless under conditions of an emergency”. Currently, only Terrafugia’s TF-2A and PAL-V’s eVTOL meet these standards.

Geely also announced that flight testing has already begun for this newest prototype version of the TF-2A, by testing a metal frame bed with a take-off weight of 1,320 lb (600 kg) while using only four lift propellers. By doing so, the engineers were able to verify the aircraft’s ability of vertical take-offs and landings and hovering, dynamic response, stability, functional coordination, and preliminary safety and reliability of each system.

Geely intends for the final version of the TF-2A to be able to have a maximum take-off weight of 2,645 lb (1,200 kg) and a payload of up to 440 lb (200 kg), as well as a maximum range of 62 miles (100 km), max cruising speed of 110 mph (180 kph), and a service ceiling altitude of 9840 ft (3000 m).  

According to Geely, the company plans to launch the full-scale TF-2A prototype “in the near future”.

Below is a flight of Geely’s latest physical prototype from last January: 

Why it’s important: Following the acquisition of Terrafugia by Geely in 2017, the company has made several strides towards the development of the aerial mobility industry. With work of the TF-2A beginning just last year, we expect to see many more innovative developments from Terrafugia and Geely, as well as a commercial release within the next decade. 

Source // electrive

Wisk this week has announced the addition of Dr. Pete Kunz to its board.

Dr. Kunz is the Chief Technologist for Boeing NeXt, as well as Boeing’s Senior Chief Engineer for Unpiloted Systems. Previously, Dr. Kunz held several leadership roles, including chief technology officer at Insitu, Inc., an unmanned aerial systems and services (UAS) company where he led both commercial and defense technical development.

“We are pleased to welcome Pete to our board,” said Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk. “His background in aerospace engineering and his experience in various aspects of the analysis, design and testing of autonomous aircraft is incredibly valuable as we continue the development and certification process for our self-flying air taxi.”

As one of the visionary leaders behind Boeing NeXt’s UAM strategy, Dr. Kunz’s background in autonomous aircraft brings additional technical and industry expertise to Wisk’s board. Dr. Kunz shares a long history of success in the industry and is recognized as a leader in the UAM space. He shares Wisk’s commitment to transforming the future of urban mobility.

“What I see happening at Wisk is extremely exciting and I love the culture that continues to be built there,” said Kunz. “I’m looking forward to helping the company work through the next phase of their aircraft development and bringing safe, autonomous flight to market.”

Dr. Kunz has a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering from Penn State.

Dr. Peter Kunz

Why it matters: Dr. Kunz’s extensive experience in the UAM space in both academia and industry will add visionary leadership to the Wisk board. Wisk has a diverse board and leadership team giving it a competitive advantage in aerial mobility.

Source: Wisk Press Release

Bye Aerospace has begun the next phase of its flight test program for its two-seat all-electric eFlyer 2. The latest aircraft built is a technology demonstrator aircraft that will pave the way for the future of electric flight, and the final version eFlyer 2.

Bye Aerospace’s two-seater eFlyer 2 technology demonstrator.

Bye Aerospace’s mission is to develop innovative and effective zero CO2 electric propulsion systems, along with integrations of structural and mechanical systems and aerodynamic advances. With electric aircraft like the eFlyer 2 moving towards production, the future of electric flight slowly is becoming more clear. This next stage of testing for the eFlyer 2 focuses on identifying an efficient and effective propellor for the eFlyer’s all-electric flight, setting the stage for the propellor dynamics of electric aircraft of all kinds, including eventual all-electric eVTOLs. It’s likely that industry discoveries and innovations being made in these traditional fixed wing electric aircraft (like the eFlyer 2, the magniX Cessna Grand Caravan, and the Ampaire EEL Electric Aircraft) will eventually make their way into all kinds of aerial mobility aircraft, including vertical-lift electric aircraft and more. For now, Bye Aerospace hopes that the eFlyer 2 will dramatically reduce operations costs and eliminate C02 emissions within the pilot flight training industry.

The eFlyer 2 in-flight

Said George E. Bye, CEO of Bye: ““Data from these flight tests will help our engineering team determine the most efficient propeller that will maximize the overall efficiency for the typical flight training syllabus requirement. The prototype Rolls Royce electric motor currently on the eFlyer 2 technology demonstrator has varying torque and a large RPM range with a relatively small size and cross-section compared to a conventional internal combustion engine.  Therefore, more of the propeller length is available to provide thrust across a broad range of RPM.” Mr. Bye concluded by mentioning that multiple iterations of the propellor will be tested over the summer against beneficial and unique electric propulsion criteria required for flight training missions.

Watch a full video summary of Bye’s mission below:

Why it’s important: Bye Aerospace is one of the world’s top companies pushing forward the electric propulsion and flight industry. With advancements made by Bye and similar electric aerospace companies, overall contributions to eVTOL aircraft such as batteries, aerodynamics, and propulsion technologies will be vast.