Category: Vehicles/Manufactures

San Luis Obispo, CA – based Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero for short) is partnering with NASA to create an all-electric X-57 “Maxwell” technology demonstrator aircraft. The Central Coast engineering firm specializes in “on-demand engineering” and ultimately plans to retrofit a Tecnam P2006T general aviation aircraft to demonstrate their technological advances in electric propulsion.

The Tecnam P2006T is a popular light twin-engine aircraft, used commonly for multi-engine flight training. ESAero’s planned timeline for incorporating design advances to the X-57 began with receiving the aircraft in 2017, followed by Mod II Flight Testing at NASA’s Armstrong Research Center during 2018. The team plans on demonstrating that their concept will save five times the energy of a comparable aircraft during cruise profile. The fuselage contains 800 lbs of batteries to power the two main electric motors mounted on the wings for cruise flight. To facilitate vertical takeoff and landing, the aircraft is outfitted with an additional 12 electric motors dispersed across the wings.

From the company’s press release: “This tooling fuselage significantly reduces overall project duration by giving engineers at ESAero and Xperimental, LLC the opportunity to perform critical experimental wing integration tasks while NASA engineers flight test the Mod II configuration at the same time,” said Tom Rigney, NASA X-57 Project Manager. “One of our key goals is to overcome the many challenges associated with integrating these new all-electric technologies and to flight test them as soon as possible. This fuselage helps us to achieve this essential goal.” said Rigney. “We want to quickly provide lessons learned to the aviation industry to help them to develop and safely fly new all-electric and hybrid-electric aircraft that have so many potential benefits.”

Why it’s important: Empirical Systems Aerospace is applying a plug-and-play approach to the electrification of aviation by combining a proven airframe with electric propulsors. The company is adopting a dispersed propulsion approach, similar to other firms such as Verdego Aero, to maximize their efficiency gains during flight. ESAero’s contract with NASA has most likely also caught the eye of Uber, as the ride-sharing company is engaged in an ongoing developmental relationship with NASA as well.

A new startup has emerged in Mumbai, India. VTOL Aviation India seeks to develop a safe, effective, and efficient air taxi for India, even as Uber Elevate eyes the area for initial test flights.

According to VTOL Aviation India’s website, its goal is to “define a transition aircraft concept with better performance in safety, noise, speed, range and payload than existing concepts, while cutting complexity to one third and reducing the emissions to absolutely negligible fractions.”

It’s possible that because the company is beginning its air taxi efforts now, it will be ready for India market before Uber Elevate arrives. VTOL Aviation India was founded by Mr. Kalyan Chowdhury, who originally held expertise in the shipping and logistics industry in India. The company envisions that its aircraft will be used for civil defense, paramedic & emergency services, surveillance, aviation training, and Tourism & Business Chartering.

The ‘transition aircraft’ as the company calls it, is being developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. It features eight vertical rotors which lift it vertically, and a ninth rear-facing that provides thrust for horizontal flight. Unlike other VTOL designs, the aircraft does not feature a tilting wing, which reduces the amount of complex moving parts on the aircraft and may therefore bring down manufacturing cost. This design is similar to the KittyHawk Cora which is backed by Google co-founder Larry Page.

VTOL Aviation India yet has yet to make any comments about its position as opposed to Uber Elevate, but its existence may pressure Uber into choosing India as its first international launch city in order to capture the market before companies like VTOL Aviation India do so. Learn more about the company’s goals and vision here. 

Uber Elevate has already selected Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles California in the United States as it’s initial test locations, but is still deciding on third launch location as either Australia, Brazil, India, France, or Japan. Japan has already founded an initiative to integrate flying cars into the market, and officials in Australia have recently met with Uber Elevate execs as well.

Potential UberAir India route

An Uber Elevate concept plane

Why its important: Competition is rising for the emerging on-demand VTOL industry around the world. As the impending success of the industry becomes more and more apparent, it’s very likely that smaller companies like VTOL Aviation India will begin popping up all over the world; as their geographical location would give them a leg up on bigger companies like Uber in their respective areas.

At the Drone Week conference in Amsterdam, Audi and Airbus jointly showed off a one-fourth scale working model of the Pop.Up concept, which Airbus debuted in May of 2017.

The Pop.Up is a three-part modular vehicle consisting of a passenger pod, a four-wheeled ground adaptation designed by Audi, and a a quad-copter attachment for urban flight.

The Pop.Up model featured at Drone Week was built in collaboration with Italdesign, a world-renowned subsidiary of Audi. In addition to the smaller working model, the companies also exhibited full size mockups of the Pop.Up. Attendees got the chance to experience what it would be like to use the the vehicle.

Pop.Up full size mockup

In the test flight, the small scale prototype picked up the passenger pod from the ground vehicle, carried it a significant distance, and the deposited it back onto the ground vehicle to continue its journey. While the model itself was fairly small, the technology exhibited was impressive and sleek to say the least.

While regulations may be lagging behind, the emergence of the Pop.Up prototype at Drone Week shows that the technology required for aircraft like this is well on its way to ready for market.

And the Pop.Up isn’t Airbus’s only urban aviation aircraft. Also in development is the Airbus Vahana. Vahana is a project worked on by the A^3 technological development arm of Airbus, and is located in Santa Clara, CA. The aircraft uses variable-angle rotors that provide thrust vertically for takeoff and landing and swivel forward to facilitate accelerated conventional flight.

Airbus A^3’s ‘Vahana’ tilting fixed wing urban VTOL.

Why it’s important: With more and more important urban air mobility announcements coming out daily, the world is starting to notice. The Pop.Up prototype video was featured by both Bloomberg and Forbes, and multiple major news networks like CNN have also recently covered stories like the Hoversurf police training in Dubai. Without a doubt, the public is becoming more and more aware of the upcoming urban air mobility revolution, pushing progress further forward.