Category: Vehicles/Manufactures

Dufour Aerospace is a unique VTOL start-up based in Switzerland. It’s mission is to develop a passenger VTOL for areas like the Swiss Alps, where mountainous terrain can cause extremely long travel times between cities.

The Dufour team has already made significant progress by developing an electric airplane that has proven flight up to one hour, multiple times per day. Dufour predicts that it will have its aEro2 eVTOL for testing by 2020.

The aEro1, Dufour’s electric test plane

On November 14th, Dufour announced the formation of Senior Advisory team, which includes Professor Dr. Leonardo Manfriani (former chief aerodynamicist at Pilatus Aircraft), Dr. Pierluigi Capone (former head of flight control laws at AgustaWestland), and Dr. Jean-Christophe Zufferey (Co-founder and former CEO of senseFly).

Left to right: Professor Dr. Leonardo Manfrianni of Pilatus Aircraft, Dr. Jean-Christophe Zuffrey of senseFly, and Dr. Pierluigi Capone of AugustWestland flight control laws.

This Announcement also comes with a statement from Dufour saying that The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm recently conducted a performance review of the aEro2’s design, which confirmed its stability with at least 10% safety margin across all modes of flight.

Dufour is also closely working on its R&D projects with ETH Zürich and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences to “further develop Dufour’s tilt-wing aircraft propulsion, control systems, and human-machine interfaces”.

Among the notable members of the Senior Advisory team is Dr. Jean-Christophe Zufferey, who is the co-founder and former CEO of senseFly, which developed a series of fixed-wing drones for various commercial mapping needs including agriculture, construction, environmental protection, and mining. Drones made by sureFly can fly up to 90 minutes at altitudes up to 400 ft. SureFly is now a subsidiary of the Parrot Group.

senseFly’s long-distance drone offerings

Also significant on the advisory team is Dr. Leonardo Manfriani, former chief aerodynamicist at Pilatus Aircraft. Pilatus is a leading developer of private aircraft ranging from trainer planes to passenger jets. Having Manfriani on the senior advisory will greatly help Dufour reach its goal of a 2020 fuselage build.

An example of some of the aircraft built by Pilatus

Why it’s important: With the formation of its new senior advisory team, Dufour continues to grow. In early September, it hired test pilot Damian Hischier, who has extensive experience in testing new aircraft. The new senior advisory team further validates the aEro2 concept, and builds momentum for Dufour.

Bell has added yet another company to its growing list of partners for the Bell Air Taxi project. This time, it’s Electric Power Systems (EPS).

Bell’s original design for the air taxi was full electric, but since further feasibility analysis, it has made the switch to hybrid electric. Bell also made this move to try to stick to its goal of multi-city testing by 2020.

Electric Power systems is a wide team of consulting engineers with years of experience in design, construction, and periodic maintenance of electric power supply systems. By partnering with EPS, Bell hopes to create the most cost-efficient and reliable battery management system for the upcoming Bell Air Taxi. Said Scott Brennan, Bell’s Vice President of Innovation:

“This collaboration with EPS is intended to further enhance the safety and performance of our aircraft through unique power storage capabilities”

Bell’s Mockup of the Air Taxi’s Control Panel

“As we forge relationships with new teammates, we move one step closer to bringing viable urban air mobility to the everyday commuter.”-Scott Drennan, Bell Vice President of Innovation.

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As a reminder, Bell is one of the partners for Uber Elevate on the UberAir project. Bell will also be working with Safran for the Air Taxi’s hybrid propulsion system, Garmin for autonomous vehicle management, and Thales for flight control system avionics.

Bell has yet remained somewhat secretive about its air taxi design. While many companies have released mockups and even flight demonstrations of their air taxi concepts, Bell has chosen only to show the interior of the aircraft, saying that for now it would like to keep its propulsion design to itself. However, the air taxi interior shows a very futuristic design featuring augmented reality and a control panel completely made up of screens. Read more about the Bell Air Taxi.

A visual from the VR demonstration of Bell’s Air Taxi experience

Why it’s important: Although Uber Elevate has announced Bell as one of its contractors for UberAir, it will also work with Karem Aircraft, Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences, Embraer, and Pipistrel Aircraft. According to Elevate’s website, Uber will work with all of these companies to develop its own (initially piloted) aircraft. It’s still a little unclear how all these companies are working with Uber, but the fact that Bell has consistently been adding more and more partners may suggest that it will be the main producer of UberAir VTOLs. Regardless, Uber is aiming for a strict 2023 operations launch, and will begin flight testing in 2020.

Jean Botti, former CTO of Airbus Group, joined the TransportUP podcast last week detail his journey founding VoltAero, a company that is developing a general aviation-sized hybrid electric airplane capable of flights up to 3.5 hours.

According to Botti, the vision of his company is to provide alternatives to Cessna or Cirrus aircraft. Those companies offer similar sized general aviation aircraft, but do not design or manufactur electric or hybrid electric versions. The main competitive features of the aircraft, slated to be named “Cassio” are safety, low noise, and fuel efficiency.

Take off and landing will be run completely on electrical power. The plane will only use its traditional thermal engine as a generator to create supplemental electricity during cruise. The generator will also run as a back up in case of an emergency situation during take-off or landing.

In 2015, Botti led Airbus’s E-Fan project, a fully electric lightweight airplane which successfully flew for 47 consecutive minutes over the english channel. However, when Botti left Airbus to found VoltAero in early 2018, he decided to make a dual-energy airplane to create the safest aircraft possible.

The eventual goal of VoltAero is to create a suite of 4-9 seat aircraft that can be used by private owners, air taxi/charter companies, commercial flights for point-to-point regional travel, and for use in other utility-category applications. At full scale, VoltAero expects to manufacture 150 of the new aircraft per year.

Deliveries of production aircraft are expected to begin during the 2021-2022 timeframe from VoltAero’s final assembly facility in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region of southwest France.

Jean Botti and Co-founder Didier Esteyne

You can learn more from Jean Botti in our recent podcast!

Why it’s Important: VoltAero is on the forefront of electric power for general aviation aircraft. While the Cassio does need a thermal engine as a generator, it can be fully electric once battery technology enables higher energy storage. Advancements for this kind of electric flight tech mean huge steps for the Urban Aviation industry. Better tech as is being developed by VoltAero is going to be highly desired by every urban air taxi operator looking for higher ranges and safety options.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently flight-demonstrated a modified Sikorsky S-76B helicopter with impressive semi-autonomous capabilities.

The ALIAS system, which stands for Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System, made its first manned flight on October 17th 2018. This flight was named as ‘optionally manned’, indicating the potential for full autonomy of the modified Sikorsky-76B.

The goal of the ALIAS System is to reduce the workload on pilots and provide a failsafe in case of an emergency. With the new Matrix Technology installed, pilots can program missions using a hand-held tablet computer. During the recent flight, the Autonomy Research Aircraft showcased its ability to take-off and land completely autonomously, fly while avoiding obstacles, and automatically determine safe landing zones.

“The reason this type of technology is important, is to reduce workload, the piloting workload and let the mission crews concentrate on what they’re really there to do, which is to either execute the MEDEVAC [medical evacuation], the close air support mission, or whatever they’re there to do,”–Dave Braden, Program Manager for the U.S. Marine Corps’ portion of the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

Unmanned testing of the aircraft this October came four years after DARPA began work on the project in 2014 in collaboration with Aurora Flight Sciences. Aurora’s solution to a computerized co-pilot placed a mechanical arm in the cockpit that could be retro-fitted to any aircraft.

Aurora Flight Sciences ultimately left the DARPA project to join Boeing on building it’s upcoming passenger air taxi. The Boeing/Aurora team is now one of the main partners working with Uber Elevate to begin flight testing it’s vehicles in major cities like LA and Dallas by 2020. CEO of Boeing Dennis Muilenberg claims that Boeing’s air taxi prototype should be in the air the next year. Read more news about the latest Boeing passenger VTOL updates. 

Why it’s important: Although Sikorsky’s recent test is military rather than commercial, it proves the viability of autonomous aircraft. Often throughout history, technology has been developed and used by the military before being accepted and integrated into public use. Such was the case with a great deal of the technology we see in today’s commercial airlines. Ultimately, progress in military VTOL autonomy is likely to mean progress for on-demand urban air mobility aircraft as well.

On October 17th, XTI Aircraft announced the sale of one of its TriFan 600 aircraft to Sáo Paulo’s Icon Aviation.

Icon Aviation is the largest business aircraft operator in South America. Its fleet consists of 30 private jets, as well as a range of helicopters. The order from Icon also comes with options for Icon to purchase an undisclosed number of additional aircraft.

Icon Aviation’s luxury air travel services

The order from Icon is XTI’s 64th pre-sale of the TriFan 600. This represents a total of about $416 million in gross revenues upon delivery.

The XTI TriFan 600 was built with the vision of creating a luxury private jet that could provide the same vertical take-off and landing benefits as a helicopter. Unlike many shorter range eVTOLs, the hybrid electric system in the TriFan gives it a top speed of 345mph with a range of 1,200 miles. The TriFan’s rotating fans allow it to land anywhere, and help it reach a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet in just ten minutes. Learn more about the TriFan 600.

Icon Aviation and XTI plan on partnering for the marketing and sales of the TriFan 600, with the twin goals of promoting the TriFan and expanding the business of Icon. Says Icon CEO Décio Galvão: “Icon and XTI have established a long-term relationship to collaborate on joint expansion of our respective businesses.”

Galvão hopes that the addition of the TriFan 600 will set Icon at the forefront of the growing luxury air travel industry.  In the announcement of the sale, he mentioned his vision to incorporate the TriFan into the Icon fleet as soon as XTI begins deliveries.

“We’re very pleased to be working with Icon,” said Robert LaBelle, Chief Executive Officer of XTI. “Icon is a recognized business aviation company leader in Brazil and throughout South America, and is an ideal partner and customer for the TriFan aircraft.

XTI has received increasing buyer interest in the TriFan 600 since it began its prototype program at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) trade show in Las Vegas last year. According to the company, tests of a 60% scale prototype should begin next month.

Why it’s important: The many pre-sales of the XTI TriFan prove the value proposition of vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can land anywhere. Moreover, the TriFan 600 shows that the future market for VTOLs will be multi-segmented. While the TriFan 600 represents the luxury/long distance side of the market, other companies like Lillium represent the more public side. As streets become more and more crowded and flight technologies become more and more advanced, the demand for personal VTOLs will inevitably grow.

Carter Aviation is a Texas-based firm that develops “Slow Rotor/Compound technology (SR/C™)” for vertical take off and landing aircraft that combines with the efficiency of a fixed-wing airplane with the vertical take-off ability of a helicopter.

Carter debuted its first VTOL prototype in 1998. Now, it has released concept images of its newest eVTOL design in line with Uber Elevate’s specifications for future air taxis.

Carter Aviation’s newest Air Taxi eVTOL concept

Carter Aviation’s design is unique in that it is one of the only fixed wing eVTOLs to feature a single lift rotor rather than distributed electric propulsion (IDEP).  It does not directly address why it has made the single rotor design choice as opposed to IDEP but does note the “unparalleled safety of a high inertia rotor”.

It’s notable that the company first began prototyping as far back as 1998, and prides itself mainly on its’ SR/C™ technology which it claims has a higher speed, cruise efficiency, and safety than other similar aircraft.

Carter’s 1998 “Carter Copter” VTOL Prototype

The single-rotor design is particularly significant as one of the reasons for special for certification requirements in Europe is that many of the new aircraft concepts such as the Vertical Aerospace eVTOL use a “distributed lift/thrust units to generate powered lift and control”.

Carter’s ‘Electric Air Taxi’ design features a 5 passenger capacity, a 175 mph cruise speed,  and a battery range of 60 miles. These specifications are built to Uber Elevate requirements. It’s slowly turning rotor, a design edge unique to Carter, make it much quieter than traditional helicopters, and can act as a built-in parachute. The vehicle cruises between 1,000ft to 2,000ft and re-charge in 5 minutes.

A blueprint of the most important features of Carter’s air taxi

Why it’s import: Companies everywhere are gearing up to partner with Uber for future on-demand air mobility. Carter Aviation is a long-time expert in combining fixed wing and vertical lift technologies, and may an aircraft we one day see in operation with Uber. While Uber has selected certain companies to work with including Karem Aircraft, Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences, and Bell, and has developed its own models of potential aircraft, it may eventually take on other partners as well, or, as it needs more and more aircraft, outsource to companies like Carter.

On October 11th, EHANG held its latest flight demonstration in partnership with Ooredoo, Qatar’s leading telecommunications provider.

The EHANG184 amazingly operates on a 5G LTE Cellular Network. It depends on this network in order to communicate both with the ground, and with flight control systems and navigation. In Qatar, the cellular network it depends on is provided by Ooredo. The latest flight tests show the EHANG184 sporting the Ooredo Logo.

Flawless connectivity is crucial because EHANG ensures flight safety partially through low-altitude command center, which has ultimate control over whether or not the aircraft is allowed to take off.

The EHANG 184 is a true passenger drone in all aspects. Its quadcopter design comes with no fixed wing, and in the past, has even been called EHANG’s ‘giant drone.’ The EHANG is pilotless – it boasts full autonomy, simply relying on the passenger to input a destination location via touch screen.

EHANG is so confident in it’s software capabilities that EHANG184 doesn’t even have a joystick. The company has years of experience developing top-of-the-line consumer and commercial drones. The fully electric eVTOL developer guarantees safety by stating, “If one set of the power systems are operating abnormally, the vehicle can still operate a normal flight plan. If any components malfunction or disconnect, the aircraft will immediately land in the nearest possible area”.

Why It’s Important: EHANG is getting close to full flight feasibility. It was one of the first companies to reveal its design in 2016, and has been slowly making progress towards commercial flight. It has already conducted over 1,000 passenger flight tests in places like Dubai, China and other countries. It even has successfully completed safety tests in conditions of high heat, darkness, fog, and gale-force winds. All of these factors have made EHANG one of the most prominent urban air mobility companies, and one of the closest to full operation, barring regulations.

The new electric motor by Safran boasts an impressive 94% efficiency rating. It’s built to be a powerhouse for both fully electric and hybrid electric aircraft, especially focusing on VTOLs.

The ENGINeUS 45 is the first in a new line of electric engines being developed by Safran. It’s able to continuously deliver 45kW of electricity, and future models will be able to deliver up to 500kW.

Safran unveiled the motor at the NBAA ( National Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition) in Miami, Florida on October 15th. Four of the engines have already been tested in a full distributed propulsion hybrid-electric system on the ground similar to what might be found in hybrid electric aircraft.

Said Hervé Blanc, Vice President of Electrical Systems and Motors division at Safran,“We are proud to present this cutting-edge equipment that boasts top-level aeronautical performance from an electromagnetic, thermal, and mechanical perspective. With this range of engines, we are making a major strategic shift towards the development of VTOL and STOL aircraft, thus opening up promising new markets for Safran.”

The Safran line at the National Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Miami, Florida.

Safran has already well established its presence in the world of electric aviation by partnering with Zunum Aero in early October. Safran will develop the hybrid-to-electric powertrain for Zunum’s hybrid electric commercial airplane design. It is yet unknown whether Safran will provide the electric motors for the ZA10 as well.

The design of Zunum Aero’s ZA10

Why its important:

While the powertrain generator for the ZA10 is a 1700 shaft horsepower engine that has been used in traditional helicopters, the development of the ENGINeUS line indicates Safran’s intention to continue shifting towards electric propulsion. Safran is one of the industry leaders for aviation engines, and its move toward electric propulsion may indicate an industry-wide trend. With big players like Safran beginning to provide electric solutions, there should be plenty of options in the near future for urban air mobility vehicle developers to find propulsion suppliers and more.