Category: Regulations

This year’s Uber Elevate Summit marks the second annual gathering focused on advancing the flying car and taxi market. The Summit also promises to yield a number of exciting announcements on recent developments from representatives at companies such as Embraer, Pipistrel, Bell Flight, Aurora Flight Sciences, and ChargePoint. Be sure to refer back to transportup.com throughout the course of the two-day summit for daily recaps of the events.

Tuesday Overview

Key Speakers

• Leading the list of key speakers will be a conversation between Nikhil Goel, Head of Product, Aviation, Uber, and Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles. This discussion is critical to Uber, as the Elevate initiative targets Los Angeles as one of the first two cities (along with the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro Area) for deployment of UberAIR
• Michael Thacker, Bell Flight: Bell Helicopters rebranded themselves as Bell Flight earlier this year, marking the transition toward a heavier focus on flying cars and taxis. At the inaugural Uber Elevate conference last year, Bell showcased a glimpse of the vehicle that they’ve been working on – expect to see a little more, if not a full reveal, of their concept Tuesday.
• Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, CEO, Embraer: The EmbraerX development team is sure to bring exciting announcements on the progress of their work over the last year. Even more interesting are the dynamics between Embraer’s work and Boeing’s eVTOL efforts – Boeing and Embraer engaged in merger talks earlier this spring, and Boeing also purchased Aurora Flight Sciences, another eVTOL company. Expect some comment on this relationship during this talk.
• John Langford, President and CEO, Aurora Flight Sciences, A Boeing Company: Expect a unique announcement from the President and CEO of the recently acquired Aurora Flight Sciences. Due to the dynamics described above, AFS is in the unique situation of defining

Possible Announcements:

• Bell Flight’s concept unveil – the concept was touted last year, and limited sneak-peaks of the eVTOL were released – however after another year more substantial reveals may be disclosed.
• Embraer and Boeing // Aurora Flight Sciences – will the relationship between Boeing and Embraer be complicated by potential merger talks that are still ongoing? Make sure to listen to talks from Embraer and Aurora Flight Sciences for more.

Takeaways: The first day of the Uber Elevate Summit 2018 will be jam-packed with heavy hitters announcing their past year’s work and developments. By the end of tomorrow, Bell Flight may have will released their full eVTOL concept, and Embraer and Boeing may more clearly define how their vertical flight development programs are linked (or not).

Check back Tuesday evening for a recap of the first day of the conference and a preview of Wednesday’s docket.

Boeing Subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences announced yesterday that a recent agreement from DARPA will allow for the transfer of Aurora’s X-plane developed eVTOL technology to commercial applications.

The x-plane technology, largely focused on piloting ducted fan and electric battery implementation in vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, will now be slated for wide-spread commercial application. The technology also included tilt-wing and tilt-canard-based propulsion.

Why it’s important: DARPA’s involvement in shepherding research-stage technology to commercial wide-scale implementation is indicative of government involvement and activism toward advancing the field of eVTOL aircraft. This announcement also reflects the quantity of work to be done if larger scale regulators, such as the FAA and EASA, plan to certify these new airborne systems as quickly as they are being researched and developed.

Source

• https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aurora-announces-x-plane-technology-to-transition-to-commercial-applications-300635928.html

The American Helicopter Society, or AHS, has rebranded to “The Vertical Flight Society” marking the shift in paradigm from solely supporting helicopters. The new name includes all vertical flight craft, including flying cars. The shift moved the society to vtol.org.

Why it’s important: The American Helicopter Society has long been a mainstay of the US’ vertical flight presence, but this rebranding acknowledges the ever-growing presence of flying car and taxi concepts (and working prototypes) that are permeating the once-dominated-by-helicopter vertical flight arena. Similarly, Bell Helicopters rebranded to Bell Flight a month ago.

Source

• http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/ahs-international-rebrands-as-the-vertical-flight-society-1002279941