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

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

BAE Systems announced via a press release last week their roll out of innovative progress on the electric propulsion system power controller front. Electric ducted fans, or EDF’s, along with brushless electric DC motors, have become popular among many eVTOL prototypes currently in existence. While many designs finalized on DC motors without the ducted fans, the engine (or propulsor) controller technology that best regulates and optimizes energy consumption over time will enable a lower direct operating cost for many customers. When cost is amortized over many thousands of flight hours, those savings add up quickly.

BAE’s main controllers are laptop-sized and are purportedly able to manage almost any propulsive devise – small through large. BAE’s value add to the already well developed electronic engine controller market is their investment in core technologies to reduce the size and weight of their control devices. Their press release state that, as a result of their recent innovative processes, the controllers are now “40 percent smaller and lighter than their original size and weight, but with 10 times the processing power”.

BAE has also added additional cyber security protection measures to their controllers, in order to protect against increasing invisible threats to aviation security. Many aerial mobility companies are developing their propulsion management technology internally, but BAE’s plug and play approach caters to the popular design mantra of sourcing ready to use components in order to create a ready to fly prototype for faster (and arguably cheaper) than a vertically integrated design solution. The future of electric propulsor energy use optimization is crucial considering the projections of the ultimate size of the aerial mobility industry, and the huge efficiency gain and cost reduction from a mere 1% of net change in electricity use.

Why it’s important: Obsession with optimization is no new concept to the aerospace industry, and the concept of electronic brushless motor controllers designed specifically for aerial mobility aircraft, or hybrid propulsion solutions that require greater integration demands, is a subtle yet crucial detail and fundamental design decision for many UAM designers and manufacturers. Some companies will use plug and play hardware such as BAE’s offerings, while others will select to remain in house and create a tailored solution to their needs. Regardless, expect further reductions in weight and size of these controllers, as well as fundamentally different management architecture for systems that largely rely on more distributed power to achieve greater efficiency.

Source // BAE Aerospace Press Release

Wincopter was announced as one of nine winners of the German smartdevelopmenthack hackathon, and event that was sponsored by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The BMZ ” is calling for innovative digital solutions to tackle the challenges caused by the coronavirus outbreak in low- and middle-income countries”

Under the patronage of the BMZ together with “Team Europe” partners from the EU Commission, other EU member states, tech-companies and civil society, the hackathon was included as a portion of the upcoming German Council Presidency.

Wingcopter emerged as one of nine winning teams of the hackathon, and their video pitch can be viewed here:

From the hackathon’s website:

“The drone solution ensures an efficient health supply chain in remote areas and moreover maps pre- and post-COVID-19 impacts. The project will establish a “multi-purpose” drone network with local graduates to enter professions such as pilots, project managers and safety and maintenance workers. This solution does not happen in isolation but in an innovative ecosystem with the necessary legal and governmental infrastructure to support it.”

Wingcopter created an approach to combating the longer lasting effects of COVID-19 by establishing societal frameworks for infrastructural implementation – going beyond the requirements for physical infrastructure, but considering how the people portions of the business were going to operate.

Wingcopter’s methodology has a potential for use amongst the aerial mobility industry, as the transportation of people will, in a large regard, rely on that same approach of implementation for societal frameworks: the people side of the operation and the industry are just as crucial as the hardware and engineering themselves. One of the aerial mobility industry’s core competencies will be to transport many people daily, safely, over congested and highly populated urban areas. Accordingly, passenger approval, comfort, and confidence in the service that they’ll be utilizing on a day to day basis is paramount to only the safety of the aircraft operations themselves.

Why it’s important: Wingcopter, and the board who judged Wingcopter’s submission to the smartdevelopmenthack event, both placed substantial value in the human centered approach for drone aid to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in Africa. The Aerial Mobility Industry should also follow suit in appreciating the value of such approaches.

Source // smartDevelopmentHack

Hyundai Motors Group has stood up a Smart Mobility display at their HMG headquarters to showcase the next generation of transportation innovations. Featured predominantly, front and center of this display was an aerial mobility aircraft prototype, flying over the model scape.

Visitors take in the Hyundai Smart Mobility Display. Image // Hyundai

This display represents Hyundai’s financial commitment to the aerial mobility industry and to the application of the technologies developed through their extensive research and development efforts toward electrified and autonomous transportation. The display will remain for roughly another month, until mid June, after which it’ll be toured at various events across the glove. Hyundai appointed their current Executive Vice President of the Urban Air Mobility Division, Dr. Jaiwon Shin to his post last September.

Hyundai has allocated the vehicle and hub model to their future transportation approach, dubbing the vehicles that transport persons as PBV’s (Purpose Built Vehicles) and the locations at which many of these interfaces occur as Hubs. Their fundamental approach asserts that the correct proportion of hubs and passenger carrying capacity of PBV’s will enable for a reduction in congestion and lowered emissions to boot. When combined with UAM efforts, the three facets of this mobility plan cover the needs of short (>2 miles), medium (2-10 miles), and medium-long (10-50 miles) in range trips that are common among urban areas.

Why it’s important: Hyundai’s establishment as a massive powerhouse amongst the competitive global auto making market allow the company to make large commitments of their R&D dollars for application to emerging technologies that may require 10-20 years to reach large scale commercial deployment. However, this long-tail investment is growing in levels of commonality among other next generation transportation systems as the foundational technologies that allow for autonomous, on demand transportation continue to mature. Some examples include electric motors, see and avoid technology and coding, flight computers or driving guidance computers, and composite fabrication technology are common to the aircraft and vehicles of tomorrow.

Source // Hyundai Motor Group, Autocar Professional

Vertical Aerospace announced on Monday morning that they have appointed a new Chief Engineer, Tim Williams. Tim previous spent 10 years as the Chief Engineer at Rolls-Royce, and is a longstanding experienced member of the aerospace industry, having spent 34 years in aviation total.

Tim stated that he was “thrilled” to join Vertical Aerospace and that he is impressed with the similarities between the companies progress within aerospace that have leveraged background from Formula 1 Racing. Michael Cervenka, CEO of Vertical Aerospace, added his positivity in Williams joining the new role, stating that the Williams’ “empowering leadership style and passion for challenging the status quo fits perfectly with Vertical’s pioneering ethos”.

As a reflection of the truly unique times that face the industry, Tim will be taking on his new role completely virtually, beginning work with the the design team at Vertical from his home.

Vertical Aerospace flew last October a prototype eVTOL dubbed the Seraph: a 12-bladed, six power drive unit configuration eVTOL that was capable of carrying 250kg in the air that boasted the modern lines and sleek appearance that many have come to expect from F1 Racing cars, but not as commonplace amongst the aerial mobility industry. Vertical continues to work with the UK’s Civil Aviation Agency (CAA) for commercial approval of the aircraft that will ultimately come from EASA, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

Why it’s important: This is a big announcement for Vertical Aerospace; the company is well suited to take advantage of Williams as a new Chief Engineer, and will likely benefit from a long standing member of aerospace to ensure that Vertical maintains an intense focus on the research and development of their eVTOL prototype, even despite the current global challenges within the aerospace industry which has been heavily impacted from a primary financial standpoint as discretionary and business travel has been severely curbed.