The Cora eVTOL has been under development for almost ten years, and this week, aspiring air taxi operator Wisk signed an MoU with the New Zealand government in to conduct flight trials in Canterbury. The flight will represent the world’s first full airspace integration trial of an autonomous eVTOL.

Cora was developed by aerospace company Kittyhawk, which gave form to Wisk soon after forming a partnership with both Boeing and Air New Zealand. Ever since Wisk’s creation in 2019, the company has been working tirelessly to make its air taxi vision a reality, starting with New Zealand.

The Wisk Cora on the ground, making its many propellors visible.

The New Zealand Government announced in October of 2019 that it would establish an industry-wide Airspace Integration Trial program to safely test and demonstrate unmanned aircraft. Wisk, based in the United States and New Zealand, is the first company to join this program.

Said New Zealand’s Minister of Research Science and Innovation Hon. Dr. Megan Woods, “This trial is the first of its kind and Wisk’s innovative technology and commitment to New Zealand make them an ideal partner for advancing the future of travel in New Zealand and the world.”

Wisk CEO commented: “We are delighted to now have a signed agreement with the New Zealand Government, which will propel Cora’s entry to the air taxi market. We see this agreement as a sign of confidence in our product and abilities to develop and deliver a safe and reliable air taxi service, starting in New Zealand.”

The Airspace Integration Trial program is being centrally managed by New Zealand’s  Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Innovative Partnerships team, working alongside the Civil Aviation Authority, the Ministry of Transport and other key stakeholders to support industry partners to take their technology from testing to in-service operations.

Why it’s important: With this upcoming cutting-edge integration trail, Wisk puts itself forward as one of the world’s top budding eVTOL air taxi providers. By being first in New Zealand, Wisk will soon have a chance to fully develop and test an every-day urban air taxi network. Originally backed by Larry Page, Cora has come far since its inception.

Related: 

Wisk’s Newest Details on the Cora Air Taxi

Dufour Aerospace announced on Monday that is has been selected by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) as one of the winners of their 22nd annual Startup Competition.

The startup competition hosts a team of IMD faculty with extensive experience in entrepreneurial activities will select the winning startups, with advisory support from the Swiss government Innosuisse, VentureKick, MassChallenge Switzerland and investiere.

The hosts create a ‘short list’ of candidates within 2 weeks of the close of the registration, and then steadily work to narrow down the list. Winners are officially selected in early December and expect a formal commitment by the selected ventures shortly afterwards.

Dufour stated on a short press release from their website: “We look forward to learning from the IMD’s expertise in international management, which will complement the technical leadership of our partners at ETH Zurich and ZHAW Center for Aviation in aircraft control and design.”

Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Singapore, IMD has been ranked in the top five for executive education worldwide for 15 years and in the top three for the last eight years by The Financial Times.

Dufour Aerospace is a young start-up on a mission to revolutionize vertical mobility by developing electric and hybrid-electric tilt-wing VTOL aircraft.

Why it’s important: IMD’s selection of Dufour Aerospace is an opportunity for the executive team at Dufour to continue to grow professionally and further advance the progress of talent development and technology maturation in relation to both existing electric aviation solutions to general aviation and future solutions to aerial mobility over the next 10 to 15 years. A number of successful startups have previously been selected by IMD in their startup competition, including AC Immune, Biowatch, Doodle, ecoRobotix, G-Therapeutics, Softwing, SpiroChem, Sysmosoft, Uepaa, VisioWave, and VWavecall.

TDK Corporation’s subsidiary, TDK Ventures Inc. has added AutoFlightX to its venture capital portfolio. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2019, TDK posted total sales of USD $12.5 billion and employed about 105,000 people worldwide.

AutoFlightX V600 prototype

The announcement is the TDK Venture’s fourth investment since the launch of its corporate venture capital (CVC) fund in July 2019 with a goal of investing in innovative startups focused on digital and energy transformation while contributing to sustainability. AutoFlightX is a growing eVTOL manufacturer based in Munich, Germany and has 100 employees with the vision of developing an industry-leading high efficiency eVTOL vehicle.

“TDK’s multi-dimensional core competency in sensors, energy and power makes them our strongest partner so far,” CEO and founder of AutoFlightX Tian Yu said. “As we look into the horizon of tomorrow’s mobility, we are committed to bringing high-endurance eVTOL vehicles with the best reliability and safety. We are thrilled to have TDK as our partner because they are world leaders in commercializing advanced technologies and supporting hard-tech entrepreneurs like us.”

According to TDK Ventures’ Managing Director Nicolas Sauvage, the CVC sought companies that combine avionics and drone expertise with strong unit economics, paired with solid business models in the eVTOL space. For TDK Ventures, the ideal company would unlock a spectrum of use cases in inspection, cargo delivery and emergency responses, all without requiring an installed charging infrastructure base.

AutoFlightX’s 50 kg prototype can carry payloads of up to 20 kg and has a flight time of two to five hours continuous cruise. The company also has a pipeline of platforms that will carry up to 300 kg and can fly two to five hours, depending on the payload.

“We believe AutoFlightX’s innovations reflect a combination of the best consumer drone talent from China paired with the aviation engineering rigor of Germany,” Sauvage noted.

The AutoFlightX team explored customer pain points in traditional industries such as mining, oil and gas and emergency response. In such scenarios, consumer drones didn’t satisfy the needs for vertical take-off, long-duration cruise and hovering while carrying large payloads, so the company began developing an eVTOL solution. AutoFlightX has already signed on several customers in the mining and inspection industries with their V40 Whiteshark platform that can carry up to a 20 kg payload. The AutoFlightX team has also recently completed their first full maiden flight of a 300 kg platform, which can deliver medicine and other time-sensitive supplies of up to a 100 kg payload. Their 1000 kg platform is currently under development, with plans for initial flights in 2020. AutoFlightX believes their 1000 kg platform will ultimately pave the path to air taxis, which will hold up to four passengers and have a range of >300 km with a single charge.

Why it matters: TDK’s investment in AutoFlightX will provide needed capital to expand research and development efforts and means of production in the near term. Further, AutoFlightX larger product offerings will bring competition to other eVTOL manufacturers in Europe, including Volocopter among others. The companies manufacturing experience from China combined with its German-educated engineering force will offer a unique talent advantage in the aerial mobility space.

Tactical Robotics, a developer of enclosed rotor VTOL technology in Israel, has signed an agreement with Boeing to explore both the production options and commercial applications of Tactical Robotic’s autonomous aerial vehicles.

The Tactical Robotics autonomous ‘Comorant’ is about the same dimensions as a Humvee

So far, Tactical has designed and prototyped a heavy-duty unmanned VTOL called the Comorant (seen above). The single-engine aircraft is autonomous or can be remotely controlled, and is purpose-built for emergency responses and important operations. Unique to Tactical Robotic’s design is its enclosed rotors, which, according to the company, will enable it to traverse and access some types of terrain (e.g. mountainous, wooded, urban) that helicopters may have more difficulty with. Additionally, enclosed rotors have enhanced safety for people surrounding them.

Through the new agreement, Boeing and Tactical Robotics hope to work together on jointly “developing, producing and marketing” aircraft with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities. Boeing has already developed a passenger air vehicle prototype with its new subsidiary Aurora Flight sciences, and has partnered with Uber Elevate, so technology from Tactical may contribute to Boeing’s air taxi ambitions.

The stated mission of Tactical Robotic’s parent company, Urban Aeronautics, is to”create, manufacture and market a family of VTOL, multi-mission, utility aircraft known that are capable of operating safely in complex urban and natural environments”. Urban Aeronautics, which has existed for over 35 years and is lead by Dr. Rafi Yoeli, is using what it calls ‘Fancraft’ technology to design vehicles for passenger use as well as emergency response. UrbanAero’s other subsidiary, Metro Skyways, is developing the CityHawk eVTOL for urban use, which follows a similar design to the Comorant. Fancraft technology uses ducted rotors for lift, and transitions to accelerated forward flight by diverting more of the airstream rearwards.

Urban Aeronautics & Metro Skyway’s CityHawk, which uses the same ducted fan technology as in the Tactical Robotics Comorant.

Why it’s important: Tactical Robotics brings forward a new kind of VTOL technology in the form of enclosed ducted fans used for both lift and forward acceleration. This fan style is unique to Tactical Robotics, and may offer important benefits that open-rotor VTOLs lack. Through this new partnership, Boeing will be able to explore the potential of this technology, as well as eventually offer it in some of their commercially offered aircraft and services.