Category: Vehicles/Manufactures

Kitty Hawk and Joby Aviation have received nearly $2m from the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). DIUx is a Pentagon organization “founded to help America’s military make faster use of emerging technologies”. None of those involved disclosed the funding details at that time.

DIUx’s plan for small electric aircraft pragmatic, according to a document that detailed the funding program. “These vehicles will … offer a niche capability for specific tactical applications with a low acoustic signature, near instantaneous start/stop, ability to spread an assault force across multiple vehicles, and automated systems.”

Joby Aviation received $970,000 from the DIUx in January last year. Kitty Hawk received $1m a few months later. However, neither company is having issues with funding; Larry Page is bankrolling Kitty Hawk, and Joby closed a $100m investment round in February this year with a number of venture capital companies.

From the Gaurdian website: “Experimental airworthiness certificates granted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), previously unreported, detail exactly how and where the aircraft are being tested.”

“Although neither vehicle can automatically sense and avoid birds or other aircraft, both are programmed to return safely back to base if their remote control systems fail. Joby’s S4 also has a full-aircraft parachute in case it suffers “a catastrophic failure”.

The S4 will mostly fly over agricultural areas and the open ocean from the ranch of Joby’s CEO, JoeBen Bevirt, located in the hills above Santa Cruz. It will also operate out of Fort Hunter Liggett, a large US army base 150 miles south of San Francisco. The FAA application says Joby has a “Department of Defense contract to perform test operations” inside the base’s airspace. Joby did not respond to multiple requests for clarification.

In May, Uber announced that it was co-developing an ultra-quiet rotor for a flying taxi with the US army.

Lt Col Michelle Baldanza, a defense department spokesperson, would say only: “DIUx is working with various personal aerial vehicle companies, all of which are selected via a competitive process open to any commercial entity.” The FAA airworthiness certificates for both vehicles specify: “No weapons may be added to the [unmanned aircraft].”

Why it’s important: A large amount of government interest is involved with two of the industry’s largest players. While there are statements that no weapons will be added to the aircraft at this time, future developments must eventually start to shift toward military applications for these planned small personal aerial vehicles.

Source

• The Gaurdian

Japan is involved in the flying car industry, and is increasing government and local support of future flying car manufacturers and companies by laying legislative groundwork for the implementation of these aircraft in the future.

After the Japanese government announced that they were launching a flying car study in March of 2018, little was heard on the subject of flying cars and Japan until today.

Japan announced that flying cars would most likely be considered “aircraft” under their Civil Aeronautics Law, and would be regulated and certified as such. Although certification for aircraft is strict, this is a regulatory win for companies like Cartivator, based in Japan, as new regulations need not be created.

The Cartivator team is a group of volunteers based in Toyota, Japan, working the development flying cars. Their intent is to hold an exhibition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to display their work.

Why it’s important: The Japanese government is firming up their initial statement of launching a study with meaningful actions that will enable them to support local flying car companies through the design, manufacturing, and even regulatory certification phases. Japan’s dedication to technological advancement among the burgeoning Asian region of the world is another reason that flying car companies in the island country should be on the radar for wider-spread commercial applications in 5 to 10 years.

Source

• The Straits Times

Audi and Airbus took a big step forward yesterday by signing a letter of intent with the government to test their Air Taxi project near the city of Ingolstadt. The letter of intent was signed by both companies in addition to the local government, firming up local political support to advance the Air Taxi project that has two industry magnates collaborating to produce a new product.

German Transport Minister Andreas Scheur stated:”Flying taxis aren’t a vision any longer, they can take us off into a new dimension of mobility. They’re a huge opportunity for companies and young startups that already develop this technology very concretely and successfully.”

Among benefits for the partnership were boosted technological activity in Germany and the long goal of traffic alleviation country-wide.

Audi and Airbus’ concept is called the Pop.Up Next, designed by Italian firm Italdesign – and is a modular eVTOL that has a detachable “base” made by Audi that serves as the car portion of the vehicle, driving it around autonomously after the Pop.Up component, manufactured by Airbus, lands on the base. The Pop.Up is a quad-rotor aircraft that Airbus is working on, in addition to their other eVTOL project, the A^3 Ventures Vahana.

Why it’s important: The Audi and Airbus partnership is further strengthened by the local government of Ingolstadt, and increasingly the tide is turning in favor of positive regulator and government relations with eVTOL manufacturers. This relationship is critical to the success of the flying car and taxi industry, as no product will ever become commercially viable without some level of support from regulators and political officials. In Germany, that’s happening already.

Source

• CNET
• Image // AutoEvolution

Marisa Garcia outlined in Forbes yesterday the prospect of using new helicopter-connection services, like the recently announced United Airlines HeliFlight service, as a “canary” or sorts for the future success of eVTOL transportation.

Namely, Garcia focused on the potential hurdles that eVTOL’s might have to overcome that make them similar to helicopters: the high investment in technology that mandates a high utilization rate for a return on any level of investment. Other similar helicopter connection services exist, like FlyBlade, which is independently growing as one of the largest on-demand helicopter and aircraft charter businesses in the world, but Garcia argues that even companies like FlyBlade start to lose ground when they partner with another transportation entity to provide true door-to-door service, like Blade did with Delta. Supposedly, that partnership will now neither be confirmed nor denied by a Delta spokesperson reached out to with that very question.

However, there are a number of advantages that eVTOL’s have over the conventional helicopters that are outline in Garcia’s commentary: they’re quieter than helicopters, fully electric, and as a result, lower impact on the surrounding urban areas that they’re slated to operate in. Additionally, the sheer volume of funding that has poured in over the past few years has allowed for rapid industry progress. Coupled with mergers and acquisitions by numerous aerospace firms, the industry is burgeoning with preparedness and a level of work intensity that has not crossed the aerospace field (in terms of aircraft development time) in history.

Why it’s important: As Garcia stated in her commentary, the next 12 months will serve as a great barometer for the success of commercial eVTOL implementations and also for on demand door-to-door transportation business models in general. Companies like FlyBlade are most likely seeking to expand their reach, if not implement the infrastructure to be the single B2C model that a consumer may use to get from their door in New York to their condo in Los Angeles. Time will tell.

Source

• Forbes
• Image // United