NASA employees conducted a full scale crash test of an eVTOL late last year at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. The eVTOL was developed by RVLT (Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology) as part of advancing NASA’s Advanced Aerial Mobility Initiative.

The full size mockup was hoisted into the air then released and swung forward, followed by impact with the ground. The mockup was fully instrumented to measure parameters during the test, including video and data channels. The test was a chance for the NASA team to validate their crash models and gain fidelity on the behavior of a composite eVTOL hull in crash scenarios as well as refine their model to better characterize how the roof and overhead structure of the hull behaves after it has failed. The model accurately characterized composite behaviors up to structure failure, NASA’s initial report stated.

These tests support NASA’s mission to assist AAM efforts safety and develop air transportation infrastructure that moves people and cargo between new locations. NASA’s considerable resources for aviation and aerospace research are being used to further that effort.

Why it’s important: NASA’s crash test allows structural model refinements that will be incorporated to future eVTOL models that will make aerial mobility aircraft safer. Further, these tests will help existing OEM’s tweak their designs to maximize safety while using careful allocations of weight in structure to return the highest strength per unit of weight. NASA’s continued investment in AAM is also an example of taxpayer and governmental investment in the future of aerial mobility technologies, indicating the degree of interest and seriousness with which the growing future mobility industry is being treated with.

Read the initial report from NASA here.

Ampaire has won a $150,000 Phase 1 award from NASA under its Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. The award is for the High Efficiency Powertrain for Hybrid Aircraft (HEPHA) project. The new AMP Drive AMP-H270 Configuration for smaller aircraft features distributive propulsion technology and can serve multiple markets.

The Phase 1 award will fund sizing, architecture and other analytical studies over six months as a prelude to a potential Phase 2 award that would fund the system’s installation and testing on Ampaire’s Cessna Skymaster testbed aircraft, the ARPA-E Bird. This aircraft has also been used for previous research by the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E advanced programs unit. It will play a role in a $9 million ARPA-E SCALEUP award announced November 22, 2022 to mature individual systems that will eventually be certified on Ampaire’s nine-passenger, hybrid-electric Eco Caravan.

“These wins from NASA and the DOE recognize Ampaire’s leadership in electrified aviation. They also recognize the near-term potential to field hybrid-electric aircraft that will revolutionize aviation by lowering emissions and the cost of travel,” said Ampaire CEO Kevin Noertker.

Under the new NASA SBIR program, the ARPA-E Bird would be equipped with a hybrid propulsion drivetrain in the nose and an electric drive system in the rear for a multi-mode hybrid system.  Ultimately, the system could be certified for light aircraft or used as part of larger power systems on regional aircraft and even transport category single-aisle jets.

The new AMP Drive AMP-H270 powertrain is a 270 kW system that has about half the power output of the AMP-H570 system that powers the Eco Caravan. The new drive system combines an ultra-efficient DHK180A4 compression ignition engine from DeltaHawk Engines of Racine, WI with an integrated electrical drive designed by Ampaire. The DeltaHawk engine runs on Jet-A and compatible sustainable aviation fuels. The Ampaire solution for the testbed aircraft provides a 45 percent cruise efficiency gain over the conventional combustion engines it replaces and double the efficiency of comparable gas turbines.

Why it’s important: Ampaire’s award from NASA underscores that importance of their hybrid-electric propulsion research and also the growing sentiment of the advantages of hybrid-electric powertrains as a bridge between current existing technologies and fully electric aircraft. The research being done at Ampaire will directly apply to their aircraft in the near-term, and help to accelerate learnings of electric powertrains in operation in various aviation arenas.

While many eVTOL makers have kept autonomy in mind while designing their aircraft, most upcoming designs feature piloted solutions, with some semi-autonomous pilot-assistance capabilities. As these aircraft have come closer to certification, it’s become apparent that commercial airworthiness for these electric aircraft will likely come before fully autonomous flight, meaning that autonomy has become a less immediate goal.

However, flight autonomy company Xwing has now formed a three-year partnership with NASA to begin developing safety frameworks and infrastructure infrastructure standards for autonomous flight.

Currently, Xwing’s work includes creating autonomous flight systems for existing aircraft, such as modified Cessna Grand Caravans. In 2021, the company flew the world’s first fully autonomous cargo flight with one of these aircraft. In this flight, the fixed-wing aircraft was able to back out of its gate, fly a predetermined mission, and pull into a gate at the destination, all fully autonomously. The ultimate vision of the company is to create systems that will allow many kinds of aircraft to completely autonomously fly pre-set routes.

In Xwing’s new partnership with NASA, the two organizations seek to establish what impact autonomous aircraft may have on national airspace, and build safety procedures for autonomous operations and design. The partnership will allow data to be shared between the two organizations, and first aims to evaluate safety arguments around runway detection and identification for vision-based landing.  It will also assess aircraft localization assurance processes and enhance GPS, according to NASA.

Said Marc Piette, CEO, Xwing: “There are different components associated with doing this. A big part is the safety case, that comes with system safety analysis, data analysis to ensure these vehicles can integrate safely with other traffic whilst being able to perform all the phases of a set mission.”

With the partnership, Xwing will also begin to share data captured from its non-autonomous part 135 cargo fleet as well. NASA’s System-Wide Safety Program (SWS) Project Manager said, “NASA focuses its research and technology transfers to have real impact, and this will help NASA understand the real-world challenges that industry is facing. Emerging aviation relies heavily on advanced automation to ensure safety, and Xwing is working to bring novel, safe aviation opportunities to the American public.”

Why it’s important: As more eVTOL aircraft take to the sky in dense urban areas, need will likely arise for artificially intelligent air traffic management softwares to assist pilots and air traffic control in airspace management. As these systems become more prevalent, systems like Xwing’s will likely eventually integrate with these to allow aircraft to act in accordance with this airspace guidance. Eventually, research being conducted by Xwing and NASA could mean that aircraft could fly completely autonomously, coordinating airspace with one another through software. It’s possible that under pilot supervision, we may be able to see these technologies begin developing within the next decade, as urban air mobility and autonomous flight evolves.

Source // XWing, AOPA, Revolution.aero

NASA recently signed a Space Act Agreement with San Francisco-based Zipline to pursue a future vision of U.S. aviation that includes delivery drones and air taxis.

To fully realize this vision, NASA researchers are developing tools and techniques to enable m:N operations – where a small number of humans (m) effectively manage many autonomous vehicles (N). This research includes close coordination with the aviation community to understand industry and public needs for these types of operations.

“These collaborations are quite important,” said Kelley Hashemi, the technical lead for autonomous systems at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. “It’s critical for NASA to gather the community’s input in order to achieve meaningful progress towards this future vision of U.S. aviation.”

Zipline, an instant logistics company that makes deliveries via drone, currently uses m:N operations to transport medical supplies and consumer goods in Northwest Arkansas, Japan, Ghana, and Rwanda. Zipline wants to continue to give back to the aviation community by sharing its lessons learned.

Through this partnership, NASA will use Zipline’s experience to find solutions for broadly implementing m:N operations in the U.S. airspace. In return, Zipline can leverage NASA’s tools and research to determine what is needed to expand its fleet operations in the United States.

“Public-private cooperation is essential to expanding drone delivery and unlocking its benefits for more people,” said Conor French, general counsel of Zipline. “This partnership is an important step in that direction. We’re excited to work with NASA to accelerate growth in drone delivery, both in the U.S. and abroad.”

Zipline also engages in NASA’s m:N working group – a collaboration among government, industry, and academia to identify and reduce m:N operation barriers.

The working group considers a variety of use cases and addresses barriers such as technical, regulatory, safety assurance, and community acceptance. This collaboration will advance the scalability of future U.S. airspace by laying the groundwork for a new operational paradigm.

Why it’s important: These types of initiatives, which require coordination with the aviation community to gauge public demand, are key to realizing a vision of advanced air mobility and implementing various operations across the U.S. This effort is just one example of how NASA’s Transformational Tools and Technologies project delivers innovative solutions through foundational research and cross-cutting tools.

Source // NASA press release by Diana Fitzgerald – Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Joby Aviation has announced that its full-size pre-production aircraft has successfully demonstrated its revolutionary low noise profile, following acoustic testing completed with NASA.

Following analysis of the data obtained over two weeks of testing as part of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign, Joby’s aircraft was shown to have met the revolutionary low noise targets the Company set for itself.

The aircraft registered the equivalent of 45.2 A-weighted decibels (dBA) from an altitude of 1640 feet (500 meters) at 100 knots airspeed, a sound level which Joby believes will barely be perceptible against the ambient environment of cities.

NASA engineers also measured the aircraft’s acoustic profile during planned take-off and landing profiles to be below 65 dBA, a noise level comparable to normal conversation, at a distance of 330 feet (100 meters) from the flight path.

“We’re thrilled to show the world just how quiet our aircraft is by working with NASA to take these measurements,” said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby.

“With an aircraft this quiet, we have the opportunity to completely rethink how we live and travel today, helping to make flight an everyday reality in and around cities. It’s a game-changer.”

All measurements were conducted using NASA’s Mobile Acoustics Facility, with more than 50 pressure ground-plate microphones placed in a grid array at Joby’s Electric Flight Base near Big Sur, CA.

To measure the Joby aircraft’s acoustic footprint during overhead flight, it flew over the grid array six times at an airspeed of 100 knots and a low altitude to measure as much of the aircraft’s noise above the background ambience as possible. Data recorded from the field of omni-directional microphones was then processed by NASA into an “acoustic hemisphere,” representing the sound emission in all directions below the aircraft at a 100 ft radius. Joby then applied standard processing techniques for spherical spreading and atmospheric attenuation, resulting in an average free-field overhead flight acoustic reading of 45.2 dBA at 1640 feet (500 meters).

Joby also conducted more than 20 take-off and landing tests above the grid array, using a variety of acceleration rates and climb angles to allow NASA to capture acoustics representative of likely operational procedures. This data will be used to adjust flight software and take-off and landing procedures for further low-noise optimization.

From day one, the Joby aircraft was designed with acoustics in mind, with the number of propellers and blades, blade shape and radius, tip speeds, and disk loading of the aircraft all selected to minimize its acoustics footprint and improve the character of the sound produced. Each of the six propellers can also individually adjust its tilt, rotational speed, and blade pitch to avoid blade-vortex interactions that contribute to the acoustic footprint of traditional helicopters.

More details regarding procedures and measurements will be released by both Joby and NASA in technical papers to be presented at industry conferences this summer.

Why it matters: A key roadblock to the wide acceptance of eVTOL technologies will be lower acoustic impact on urban environments than traditional substitutes. Until now, noise performance figures have been mostly marketing gimmicks, lacking real tests. With this series of NASA testing, Joby has proved it has a craft capable of blending into the noise characteristics of an urban environment without disrupting life below.

Joby’s electric air taxi, which has recently swept the market through multiple large fundraising rounds, a successful IPO, and an acquisition of Uber Elevate amongst others, has now announced that they have become the first company to fly an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft as part of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign.

Joby’s full-scale, all-electric prototype preparing for flight above the company’s Electric Flight Base in California.

The NASA Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign, which began as the ‘UAM Grand Challenge‘ was designed a few years ago to challenge the top growing companies in vertical urban flight through tests in performance that could set standards for the emerging industry as a whole.

Recently, Joby became the first company to actually fly its aircraft as part of the challenge, which is also designed to establish public confidence in these electric aircraft by putting them through multiple flight test scenarios. As part of the two-week test campaign at Joby’s Electric Flight Base near Big Sur, California, NASA and Joby will join forces to study the acoustic signature of the all-electric Joby aircraft, which the company intends to operate as part of a commercial passenger service beginning in 2024.

In the coming tests, NASA engineers will deploy their Mobile Acoustics Facility and more than 50 pressure ground-plate microphones in a grid array that allows for multi-directional measurement of the Joby aircraft’s sound emissions. Using this data, NASA and Joby will generate noise hemispheres for the aircraft that capture the intensity and the character of the sound emitted in comparison to helicopters, drones, and other aircraft. These readings, in combination with the noise profile of urban communities, can be used to verify how well proposed aircraft operations would blend into existing background noise.

Said Davis Hackenberg, NASA AAM mission integration manager, “NASA is proud to continue our relationship with Joby by gathering highly valuable aircraft safety and noise data that will contribute towards an aviation future that includes Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations. Data from industry leaders like Joby is critical for NASA’s research activities and future standardization of emerging aircraft configurations.”

Said JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, “From day one, we prioritized building an aircraft that not only has an extremely low noise profile, but blends seamlessly into the natural environment. We have always believed that a minimal acoustic footprint is key to making aviation a convenient part of everyday movement without compromising quality of life, and we’re excited to fly with NASA, our long-time partners in electric flight, to demonstrate the acoustic profile of our aircraft.”

Why it’s important: The beginning of flight tests signals that NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility campaign is moving forward as planned several years ago. Along the way, NASA has worked closely with Joby and other eVTOL companies to prepare them for these tests. Joby has already designed its aircraft with ultra-low noise emissions, and through the campaign’s flight tests, the company will get a chance to officialize and publicize the degree to which their electric air taxis can blend into urban background noise.

Students at the University of Texas – Austin have been awarded an over $3.5 million dollar grant from NASA to research the future of aerial mobility, specifically with focus toward logistical applications of aerial mobility technology. The award is part of a larger grant of $8 million from NASA that includes involvement from UT Austin, Purdue, MIT, Morgan State University, and industry partner Cavan Solutions.

One of the primary focuses for the award is to develop and test a model that simulates the cost and scalability of autonomous aerial mobility operations, to further supplant assumptions and market surveys which indicate the the economic proposal for using air cargo drones as a stepping stone on the path toward on-demand commercial operations is a wise idea. In addition, the intermediary technological development step (logistical applications) maintains massive market potential as well.

The Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin was awarded a grant for hypersonic research in December of 2020 prior to NASA’s grant for Aerial Mobility research. Image // UT Austin

“Public concerns such as noise pollution, privacy or perceived risks of autonomous operations are usually addressed in a post-hoc analysis,” said lead investigator Ufuk Topcu, professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics and director of the Autonomous Systems Group in the Oden Institute. “This approach is not only costly but tends to have limited impact. We are using mathematical models to represent public concerns that characterize their relative importance with other factors in the overall process.”

It wouldn’t be obvious, but there are unique aspects of aerial mobility modeling that have been further emphasized in a society living amongst the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, package deliveries have increased drastically, and options for contactless drop off and pick up of goods have skyrocketed. What’s more, in many cases staffing levels can barely maintain the deluge of required deliveries, and an option such as on-demand aerial mobility aircraft to take over some of the burden is quite attractive. However, with the increased number of delivery aircraft flying in any given city, faculty and students at UT Austin have stated that they intend on adding flight path routing constraints which regard certain paths with varying levels of desirability, those being less impactful from noise and footprint standpoints besting other options that may fly lower over a hill or directly over areas of higher population density.

Why it’s important: NASA’s funding will allow for increased efforts to effectively and accurately model the impacts of aerial mobility. These research projects should aid in closing economic trade studies on the path to on-demand commercialized aerial mobility, with logistical applications of similar aircraft representing the intermediate step toward achieving passenger carrying flights.

Source // UT Austin Press Release

Reportedly, special emphasis is also being placed on National Campaign safety scenarios: autonomous flight, contingency management, including collision avoidance, and flight path management.

Robert Pearce, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said, “Wisk brings a tremendous amount of experience in eVTOL vehicle development, automation technologies, and flight test, and combines it with a safety-first mindset towards advancing autonomous flight. NASA believes our partnership with Wisk will help accelerate the realization of exciting new Advanced Air Mobility missions.”

NASA’s Advanced Aerial Mobility Initiative aims to accelerate aerial mobility progress. Image Credit // NASA

NASA and Wisk will collaborate to define future means of advancing the aerial mobility industry – while new certification standards might not be defined until they’re officially confirmed by regulating bodies such as the FAA or EASA, the joint venture will allow creation of common engineering design and development standards in order to establish common minimum operable products within the industry, and hopefully propel those that already meet or exceed standards even further. Some of these standards definition areas include flight path management, airspace integration, minimum performance requirements, and general flight procedures.

“Our partnership with NASA will bring together our market-leading expertise in autonomy with the unmatched technical capabilities of NASA,” said Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk. “The frameworks and recommendations developed through this collaboration will not only advance autonomous passenger flight but also increase the overall safety of aviation.”

Why it’s important: Wisk’s partnership with NASA is unique in that it represents a high-visibility public private partnership to advance aerial mobility between a government organization and a private company. This partnership affords both participants the opportunity to leverage the other’s resources while also mutually benefiting the entire aerial mobility industry. Such partnerships in large scale commercial aerospace are very uncommon at present since the amount of shared intellectual property would lead to eradication of most competitive advantages. While it remains to be seen the level of data disclosure that will accompany this collaboration, hopefully the benefits of NASA and Wisk’s work are able to cast a broad reach among other advanced autonomous aerial mobility development efforts.

Source // PR News Wire

The Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge, initiated by the FAA and NASA, is designed to provide a ‘proving ground’ for new types of urban aircraft, allowing both government regulators and the new aircraft developers to begin setting the standards for commercial certification. This week, NASA announced seventeen of the companies it will be working with in the Grand Challenge.

An artist’s rendering of NASA’s vision for the future of urban air mobility.

The main event of the Grand Challenge will take place in 2022, and will be a “full field demonstration in an urban environment that tests the readiness of companies’ vehicles and airspace operators’ systems to operate during a full range of passenger transport and cargo delivery scenarios.” According to NASA, the timeline set for the Grand Challenge series was dictated by predictions from participants on their aircrafts’ readiness. Traffic management systems, weather resilience, safety, and other systems for communications and navigation will all be tested and evaluated.

The developmental testing phase of the UAM Grand Challenge in 2020 will assess the readiness of NASA’s test infrastructure while integrating a mobile operating facility and NASA airspace services. Joby Aviation is slated to complete flight tests during this developmental phase.

In the 2022 main event, Joby Aviation and five other companies will complete flight tests. These are: Zeva Aerospace, Bell, Boeing, NFT, and Prodentity.

Featured: Joby Aviation (top left), Zeva Zero (top right), The Bell Nexus (bottom left), and the Boeing PAV (bottom right).

The other eleven industry partners with NASA focus on providing solutions and data for UAM air traffic management services, which will be a key part of the aerial mobility ecosystem. During the Grand Challenge, these companies will test their airspace management services in a series of NASA-designed airspace simulations. The list of companies includes:

• AirMap
• AiRXOS,
• ANRA Technologies
• ARINC
• Avision
• Ellis & Associates
• GeoRq
• Metron Aviation
• OneSky Systems
• Uber Technologies
• The University of North Texas

Why it’s Important: NASA’s Grand Challenge is not only designed to test new aircraft, but to help NASA and the FAA set certification requirements for vehicles going into commercial operation within the next ten years. Companies that participate in the Grand Challenge are likely to have a head start on launching operation of their aircraft in commercial services.

Related:

NASA Completes First Steps in Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge
(November 2018)

Toyota-Backed Joby Aviation Raised $590 Million in Series C Funding
(January 2020)

New Zeva Zero Prototype Images Revealed
(October 2019)

Sources //  eVTOL.com

The X-57 Mod II, NASA’s first all-electric experimental aircraft, will soon undergo testing

The aircraft was recently finished and delivered to NASA by their primary contractor, ESAero. With the delivery, NASA intends to start their engineers in testing the X-57 Mod II in ground tests. With success in testing, NASA looks to have the X-57 Mod II lead the discussion in areas such as flight efficiency, zero carbon emissions and noise reduction. 

The X-57 Mod II, a modified Tecnam P2006T

The X-57 Mod II, a modified Tecnam P2006T, features an all electric propulsion system, powered by lithium-ion batteries. The aircraft has a maximum flight speed of 172 mph at an altitude of 8000 ft, and a total weight of about 3000 lb. 

“The X-57 Mod II aircraft delivery to NASA is a significant event, marking the beginning of a new phase in this exciting electric X-plane project,” says X-57 Project Manager Tom Rigney in the press statement. “With the aircraft in our possession, the X-57 team will soon conduct extensive ground testing of the integrated electric propulsion system to ensure the aircraft is airworthy. We plan to rapidly share valuable lessons learned along the way as we progress toward flight testing, helping to inform the growing electric aircraft market.”

The X-57 is a design driver, intended to continue progress on the electric aircraft market, as well as explore the capabilities and restrictions of the aerial mobility market. NASA intends to use the X-57 to define certification standards for the electric aircraft market, in which many vehicles in the aerial mobility market are included. 

Afterwards, there are plans to start on development for the Mod III, which will focus on energy efficiency, another vital factor in the electric aircraft market. 

For more information about specifics of the electric aircraft market, read Matt Bohlsen’s Look at the Emerging Electric Aircraft Sector.

Why it’s important: Success in the aerial mobility sector will precede a huge expansion into a new market for transportation. With many companies already spending resources in getting their vehicles properly certified and exploring regulation standards, NASA intends to try and stay ahead of the curve by developing proper certification and regulatory standards for all electric aircraft to abide by, so that they are not taken off guard in the event that aerial mobility undergoes a massive expansion.

Source // Popular Mechanics

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