Category: Vehicles/Manufactures

Dufour Aerospace Announces Senior Advisory Team

16 November 2018 || 4 min read

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....

Read More

They’re Great for Cars, But Not so Much Urban Aviation Over the last 20 years, batteries have been one of the slowest developed hardware components in the world. Solar power, advanced materials, and next generation manufacturing processes have all sparked new business and provided the technological momentum to create new industries. All but the battery. In order for the Urban...

Read More
Tesla P90D

The goal of Rensselaer’s latest research center is to pursue cutting-edge research in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft technologies. Earlier this month, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) held a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by Uber Elevate Director of Engineering Mark Moore, as well as representatives from Terrafugia, Boeing, Aurora Flight Sciences, and Bell. While the opening of RPI MOVE...

Read More
RPI Opens MOVE-Center for Mobility with Vertical Lift

The Lilium air taxi is getting closer to market. It recently hired Mirko Reuter, former head of Automated Driving at Audi, Jakob Waeschenbach, former head of Equipment Installation at Airbus, and Rochus Moenter, former Vice President of Finance and Leasing at Airbus. Lilium is a German company based out of Munich. Its air taxi design is one of the sleekest on the market, and...

Read More
Lilium Air Taxi hires from Audi and Airbus

A few weeks after delivering its first S3 Hoverbike to the Dubai Police, Hoversurf has transitioned its leadership to new CEO Steve Weinstein. Weinstein has been with Hoversurf as its Strategic Advisor since early 2018. During the year, he led Hoversurf’s partnerships with aerospace and fabrication companies, and has been raising awareness for the Series A funding round, which will...

Read More
Dubai Police Train on Hoverbike

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...

Read More
Bell Air Taxi

The Terrafugia TF-2 Concept Video

06 November 2018 || 4 min read

The Terrafugia TF-2 is a unique concept transportation solution featuring a passenger pod or cargo pod that switches between road and air transport. In the air, the Terrafugia TF-2 is a large hybrid-electric VTOL with a fixed wing, and capacity of up to four passengers or 1400lbs of cargo. On the ground, it looks surprisingly similar to a futuristic city...

Read More

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...

Read More
Voltaero Hyrbrid Electric Aircraft Concept

DARPA Tests Semi-Autonomous Sikorsky Helicopter

02 November 2018 || 3 min read

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...

Read More
DARPA Helicopter with Semi-Autnomy

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...

Read More

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...

Read More
Carter Aviation's newest eVTOL concept

EHANG’s Latest Demonstration Flight in Qatar

26 October 2018 || 3 min read

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....

Read More
EHANG Over Qatar

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...

Read More
Safran ENGINeUS

This morning (Tuesday October 23rd), Bell Announced a partnership with the Thales Group to further develop flight control systems for its VTOL aircraft, including the Bell Air Taxi. The Thales Group is a high-technology solutions provider specializing in many areas from aerospace to connected cars to deep-sea exploration. Part of its core value is helping to make the world safer...

Read More
Bell Air Taxi Interior

Air New Zealand Signs Agreement with Kittyhawk

19 October 2018 || 3 min read

This week, Air New Zealand and Kittyhawk signed an agreement to develop autonomous electric air taxi services for New Zealand’s cities. As a reminder, Kittyhawk is the developer the Cora, an electric vertical take-off and landing air taxi with a range of about 62 miles and a top speed of 110mph. This makes it perfect for short range trips that...

Read More
Kittyhawk