Category: Vehicles/Manufactures

Dufour Aerospace, based near the Swiss Alps, believes in Regional Air Mobility as opposed to Urban Air Mobility.

Since 2015, Dufour Aerospace has worked on its vision for eVTOL mobility. It started with successful flights of the aEro1 electric airplane and is now working on building the prototype aEro2, a two-seater tilt-wing hybrid eVTOL capable of travel up to 800km.

Dufour Aerospace believes that while short-distance urban air vehicles like the Volocopter will one day emerge, longer distance ‘regional’ VTOL trips between cities rather within them are more imminent due to their higher time-saving potential.

A potential route for Dufour’s aEro2

For trips that would take several hours by car, many travelers prefer to fly by airplane. However, according to Dufour, the overhead time added to the trip by getting to and through the airport highly diminishes the time saved by flying. Dufour envisions that it’s ‘aEero3’ hybrid eVTOL could provide closer and quicker point-to-point travel between these destinations. For example, the overhead time for many airports is 60 minutes, while the overhead time for vehicles like the aEro3 could be as little as 30 minutes. See this visualized by Dufour below:

Dufour’s comparison between cars, traditional airplanes, and eVTOLs like the aEro3.

While traditional airplanes can fly faster than the aEro3, the time overhead time travelers could save by using regional eVTOLs often makes them more desirable. Dufour demonstrates this by creating a map showing the quickest total transit times to MIT from places in the Boston and Washington D.C areas and MIT:

Dufour’s map of fastest transit times to MIT by mode of transportation.

Dufour also provided the below analysis for transit times comparing the three transportation modes by distance. This graph was created using a database of door-to-door transit times between destinations in the Washington D.C and Boston area in the U.S:

For the next ten years, Dufour feels that mid-range journeys of 25km to 800km are where hybrid (not pure electric) eVTOLs can deliver the most value. According to Dufour, “significant time savings over cars will not be easy to achieve with eVTOLs within cities because, while they are much faster, their passengers will need to use heliports to embark and disembark.”

Dufour was recently selected as one of the Bilan top 50 startups in 2019. Read more about this latest achievement here.

Why it’s important: While Dufour understands the appeal to skip over traffic by air, it has chosen to look at where eVTOL can save travelers the most time. Dufour believes that this is in journeys between 25 and 800km. The greatest takeaway from its recent study is that high overall time savings vs other modes of transportation is a highly important element to VTOL success.

Named the “Aero”, the conceptual model was revealed at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show.

Goodyear came out with a new concept tire that could help merge travel through road and the air. The Aero is modeled similarly to a VTOL aircraft (Vertical Take-Off and Landing), utilizing the spokes in the tire as propellor blades during flight. Ideally, this would allow a car to take off in flight from a stable surface with no issues.

The Aero is a blend between a tire and a rotor, resulting in a unique design that can handle both the stresses of pavement and still be able to propel a car through the air as well.

The tire is designed in such a way that it is flexible enough to support driving on the road, while still being able to act as propellors in flight. To ensure that the tire can achieve this while dampening the effects of driving on roads, the design is non-pneumatic, which means that it does not rely on air pressure to provide stability and support for the vehicle’s weight. Additionally, magnetic forces would provide frictionless propulsion and create the high rotating speeds needed to put the car in the air when the wheels are tilted upward. The Aero additionally includes optical sensors and artificial intelligence to monitor the state of the tire and ‘communicate’ with the car about road conditions and the state of the tire. 

Goodyear was firm in their assertion that the Aero is a conceptual design, and far from being ready for implementation. However, Goodyear hopes that the Aero can start a discussion on the future development of tires and transportation. According to Chris Helsel, Goodyear’s chief technology officer, “With mobility companies looking to the sky for the answer to the challenges of urban transport and congestion, our work on advanced tire architectures and materials led us to imagine a wheel that could serve both as a traditional tire on the road and as a propulsion system in the sky.”

Why it’s important: Goodyear’s Aero raises a discussion about the future of tires when daily transportation no longer takes place solely on roads. When the next innovation in the transportation industry occurs, it will likely be influenced by the discussions on hybrid technologies that are being explored today. 

Sources // Motor Authority, CNN, NBC News

With production scheduled to begin next year, PAL-V revealed a special edition of its ‘Liberty’ flying car earlier this week at the Geneva Motor Show.

The PAL-V Liberty is part gyro-plane and part three-wheeled car. Anyone with a drivers license can drive the PAL-V on the ground, but a pilot’s license is required for flight. PAL-V showed off the base model of its flying car last year. Learn more about the PAL-V’s specs.

According to PAL-V, the new ‘Liberty Pioneer’, will be first out for delivery with a production run of only 90 units. This special version of the original PAL-V Liberty will have tailor-made leather interior, carbon materials, and two-tone coloring, as well as some extra performance features. Delivery is scheduled for 2020.

Said PAL-V Chief engineer Mike Stekelenburg: “The gyroplane principle not only provides us with a safe and easy-to-operate flying car but it also enables us to make it compact and within existing regulations, which is the most important factor to build a useable flying car.” The PAL-V Liberty requires about 1,000 feet of runway to take-off, 98ft to land, and has a range of about three hundred miles.

PAL-V is currently testing its production-ready aircraft with the European Aviation Safety Agency for certification as a small rotorcraft. Around 150 flight trials are required and will occur this year. As of mid-2018, PAL-V has received about 50 pre-orders for the vehicle.

Why it’s important: While the PAL-V Liberty is more recreational aircraft than built for urban air mobility, the vehicle has had to go through many of the same certification and production details that new eVTOL aircraft are experiencing. By ‘normalizing’ the experience of personal flight, PAL-V paves the way more new types of personal aircraft.

Sources // FlightGlobal, New Atlas.

Startup company Blainjett Aviation has released a new breakthrough for the field of rotary-wing aviation.

Blainjett Aviation’s dynamic-variable-pitch technology

Their new conceptual design, termed “dynamic variable pitch”, is an innovative upgrade to propeller technologies that looks to change the way new rotary-wing aircraft are designed. The dynamic variable pitch technology will automatically stabilize and regulate propellers or rotors to improve the overall speed and efficiency. By attaching a flexible cam to the propeller, Blainjett has found a method to automatically monitor the propeller’s airflow and orientation.

The mechanics of a fixed rotor

One of the largest obstacles to the breaking past the limits of helicopter flight is thrust vectoring, or the ability of an aircraft to effectively control the direction of its thrust from a motor or engine. The ability to do so can directly impact the aircraft’s limitations in efficiency regarding manipulation of its own altitude and angular velocity. Dissymmetry of lift is another problem facing conventional rotary-wing aircraft, where the rotation of the blades will cause uneven amounts of lift and reduce the stability of the aircraft in forward flight. This is one of the key limiting factors in a rotary-wing aircraft’s top speed.

Through this cam, these obstacles can be mitigated. The cam can use the propellers to automatically guide the airflow, allowing for quadcopters to achieve higher speeds at a more efficient pace, and be able to takeoff, land, and maneuver all without tilting the rotors or main body of the aircraft. Additionally, Blainjett’s proof of concept prototype provided data that suggest that the countering of dissymmetry of lift can be improved by 75%, and projected up to 125% in future testing.

Blainjett Aviation hopes that with the help of their new technology, they can not only attract investors in the UAV and manned VTOL markets, but aid in creating the designs of radical new aircraft as well.

Why it’s important: Blainjett Aviation’s dynamic-variable-pitch technology creates potential for vast improvements in efficiency and developments in rotary-wing aircraft. Using the integrated cam, Blainjett’s tech can automatically monitor and adjust any problems from the rotor. Dynamic-variable-pitch provides Blainjett Aviation the opportunity to create huge developments in the rotary-wing industry.

Sources // AviationPros, Blainjett Aviation, ScienceDirect

Earlier this year, both ASX (formerly known as Aerospace X) and Transcend Air announced that they will partner with VerdeGo to develop their vehicle’s propulsion systems.

A visual of VerdeGo Aero’s IDEP system.        

Until September of last year, VerdeGo had planned to make its own VTOL aircraft. The company then pivoted to providing IDEP (integrated distributed electric propulsion) systems to other aircraft makers. Since then, it has successfully partnered with both ASX and Transcend Air.

“VerdeGo Aero’s IDEP systems enable forward-thinking aircraft manufacturers such as ASX MOBi-One to apply electric propulsion options to high-performance VTOL aircraft. ASX’s adoption of our first generation hybrid IDEP platform will smooth the path to a fully battery electric VTOL solution, once those options become viable”–Eric Bartsch, COO of VerdeGo Aero.

The ASX MOBi-One aircraft

VerdeGo was co-founded by none other than Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindberg, who made history with the world’s first solo transatlantic flight in 1927. VerdeGo made the transition from making its own eVTOL to providing propulsion systems upon seeing a need in the market for a company purely focused on propulsion.

VerdeGo Aero’s original PAT200 design

With VerdeGo’s technology, ASX hopes to ensure that it will have a “clear roadmap of propulsion variants of the MOBi well into the future”.  Similar to ASX, Transcend Air hopes that VerdeGo will help the company to “enable a new family of aircraft that deliver a variety of mission capabilities, with increased efficiency and sustainability.” VerdeGo has also partnered another aspiring VTOL developer, Seyer Industries.

Transcend Air’s Vy400 aircraft

Both ASX and Transcend Air are focused on making larger-size eVTOls for both intracity and intercity travel. Additional information on both companies can be found on TransportUP’s hangar page.

Why it’s important: VerdeGo Aero is quickly becoming one of the world’s leading producers/designers of propulsion systems for eVTOLs. While many larger companies are building their propulsion systems in-house, VerdeGo allows for developing companies to outsource this design work, lowering barriers to entry for new companies.

Souces // Press Release Distribution, Transcend Air, VerdeGo Aero, ASX. 

In Vahana’s latest test flight, the vehicle exhibits the capabilities of its tilting wing, transitioning from vertical take-off to horizontal flight.

The above video comes from Zach Lovering, project executive for Vahana at A³. The Vahana takes off vertically, tilts its wings for transition into horizontal flight, stops, turns around, and lands. The aircraft flies for 7 minutes at speeds up to 57mph, and altitudes of up to 210 feet.

In a recent Vahana blog post, Lovering mentions that these flights are for testing flight controls, navigation, failure detection, and noise mitigation. While the full-scale model has flown 50 test flights, the sub-scale version has flown 1,277 flights. The full-scale version made its first test flight on January 31st, 2018.

Vahana Alpha Two on the Pendleton, Oregon UAS runway, February 2019.

In the last few months, many top aircraft manufacturers have released vehicle footage to the public. Most recently Boeing showed its ‘Personal Air Vehicle’ (developed in collaboration Boeing’s subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences) taking off, hovering, and landing autonomously. Bell Helicopter brought the ‘Nexus Air Taxi’ to CES 2019 last month, where fans got the chance to sit in the vehicle itself.

Airbus has made progress in of many aspects of Urban Air Mobility, having recently released the blueprint for Airbus Altiscope, an airspace management system, and a small-scale prototype of its Pop.Up Next vehicle in collaboration with Audi. While it’s yet unclear whether Airbus will pursue one of these avenues or all of them, the company has certainly staked its claim on air taxis with the Vahana’s latest test video.

The Airbus Altiscope vision for the future of urban air mobility

Why it’s important: With the release of the latest Vahana flight video featuring the aircraft in flight for 7 mins at speeds up to 57mph, Airbus marks its place among the recent flood of prototype videos released by major companies like Boeing and Bell Helicopter. The video features the Vahana transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight, which Boeing has named as, ‘typically the most significant engineering challenge for any high-speed VTOL aircraft’.

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Source // Airbus Vahana Blog, Boeing Technology Blog

Hoversurf, the maker of the acclaimed Hoversurf Hoverbike, has begun a new video blog discussing urban air mobility.

This week, Alex Atamanov explains the Venturi engine, which uses an electric ducted fan. Electric ducted fans are part of many popular VTOL designs:

Follow Hoversurf on Youtube

Hoversurf began delivering its Hoverbike to customers in September of 2018, starting with the Dubai police force. Read more about the latest news from Hoversurf here.

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Skyworks Global- A company that’s specialized in ‘gyroplanes’ for over twenty years-is producing a powerful VTOL business aircraft. With the Skyworks Global Heliplane ready to manufacture, and the HAWK-5 already in the air, the company is well set as a powerful player in the VTOL aircraft space.

The Skyworks Global Verti-Jet is a business conversion of existing technology used in the company’s ‘Heliplane’. The Helipane (featured below) is currently being marketed towards the U.S Marines. According to Skyworks Global’s brochure for the Heliplane, the aircraft can reach speeds of up to 400mph and has a range of 1,000 miles. It flies a combination of slowed-rotor compound lift technology (similar to the Carter Copter), a fixed-wing for the lift in horizontal flight, and turbofan or turboprop engines for propulsion.

Above: The Skyworks ‘Heliplane’ which is currently being marketed to the U.S Marines. Top speed is 400mph with a range of 1,000 miles.

According to Skyworks Global, the company’s motivation for building gyroplanes comes from the fact that they are both versatile and economical, as well as “unconstrained by the physics imposed speed, range, and payload limitations of a helicopter”. The company has been working on gyroplanes for over twenty years, starting with the Hawk 4, which flew at the Salt-Lake City Olympics in 2002.

Above: The Skyworks ‘Hawk 4’ which flew at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. 

Skyworks has also demonstrated an interest in and awareness of the upcoming air-taxi market. It’s ‘Scouthawk’ aircraft, marketed for the military, border patrol, law enforcement, rescue, urban mobility, and more, was featured in a recent Skyworks Global concept video for air taxi use:

Why it’s important: While the Skyworks Verti-Jet is not an electric VTOL, it has a very strong use case for business travel between cities, much like the Transcend Air Vy 400 or the XTI Tri-Fan 600. With a depth of experience in gyroscope flight technology, and a potential air taxi in the ScoutHawk, the company is well positioned to provide vehicles for the urban air mobility space.

Boeing’s newest passenger air vehicle (PAV) made its first flight in Manassas, VA yesterday, completing a takeoff, hover, and landing flight profile. The aircraft was designed and developed by Boeing NeXt, which leads the company’s urban air mobility development efforts.

Boeing NeXt and subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences verified some of the vehicles autonomous functions and ground control systems during the flight on Tuesday. Watch video of the flight:

The concept for Boeing’s PAV follows their early prototype reveals, with four rotors per side of the aircraft providing lift, and a single pusher propeller providing thrust for forward flight. Currently, the aircraft has a number of ground sensors attached to the skids on each side that also serve as landing gear, but that may change in the future. Furthermore, this iteration of the PAV has seating for two passengers.

The takeoff, hover, and landing of Boeing’s PAV yesterday pave the way for envelope expansion flight testing as the handling characteristics and autonomous flight control systems are refined during further operation of the aircraft. The aircraft is 30 feet long and 28 feet wide, and has a range of 50 miles.

“In one year, we have progressed from a conceptual design to a flying prototype,” said Boeing Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop. “Boeing’s expertise and innovation have been critical in developing aviation as the world’s safest and most efficient form of transportation, and we will continue to lead with a safe, innovative and responsible approach to new mobility solutions.”

“Boeing was there when the aviation industry was born and in our second century, we will unlock the potential of the urban air mobility market,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager of Boeing NeXt. “From building air vehicles to airspace integration, we will usher in a future of safe, low-stress mobility in cities and regions around the world.”

Why it’s important: Boeing’s rapid progress from prototype to first flight of its new Passenger Air Vehicle substantiate (in part) some of the claims that the additional resources of larger OEM’s in the aerospace field may help overcome hurdles that smaller companies may require more time to navigate. Now that the PAV is in flight testing, others will likely be watching to learn lessons from the interactions between Boeing and the FAA once certification flight testing is commenced.

Learn more about Boeing’s PAV here, and be sure to subscribe to TransportUP’s newsletter and podcast to stay up to date on all things urban aviation!