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...

Read More
United Airlines Dreamliner

Bell and Safran announced on Tuesday that they’d be working together on Bell’s new eVTOL system. Bell will be responsible for the design cycle, including manufacturing of the eVTOL, with Safran providing “a disruptive propulsion system”, according to Safran’s press release. Scott Brennan, Bell’s Director of Innovation, commented at a transit conference in Cologne: “This announcement is another proof point...

Read More
Bea Uhart / CAPA Pictures / Safran

Boeing’s GoFly Flying Car Design Contest

16 June 2018 || 2 min read

The GoFly flying car design contest winners were announced on Thursday. The Boeing supported contest encouraged innovators and engineers to think outside the box to come up with novel solutions to personal transportation. All 10 winners received a $20,000 reward for topping out the more than 100 entires in the first phase of the contest. The second and third phases...

Read More
Boeing GoFly Flying Car Design Contest

Workhorse’s SureFly prototype is now taking its next step towards functional operation – applying for a Federal Aviation Administration Type Certificate. The FAA certifies aircraft based on a number of factors, and in some case it is not necessary for a completely new Type Certificate for an aircraft to be issued if that aircraft shares similarities with a currently existing...

Read More
SureFly Applies for FAA Type Certificate

Initiatives like UberAIR aim for flying taxis to be implemented in cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas, Paris, and Dubai by 2023. While this rapid deployment goal is advantageous for the consumer, it has created an entirely new mode of transportation, which corresponds to an untapped niche market for insurance firms. The closest analogous insurance structure to a flying taxi...

Read More
TF-X on Landing Pad

Volocopter displayed their VC-200 flying taxi at the CeBIT Tech Fair on June 12th in Hannover, Germany. The CeBIT Fair runs from June 12-15, and is focused on “Future Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, and VR”. The VC-200 model was on display for visitors to experience. Volocopter’s presence at the fair marks one of the most well-known flying taxi manufacturer’s continued promotion...

Read More
Volcopter at CeBIT

Elon Musk Criticizes Safety of Flying Cars

22 May 2018 || 2 min read

In a talk given at The Boring Company’s event in Los Angeles last week, Elon Musk commented on the nature of safety (or his opinion of the lack of it) in proposed flying cars, quoting the danger of operating a large amount of them in an urban area. Musk stated: “There will be zillions of these things flying all over...

Read More
Elon Musk

Queensland Prepares for Flying Cars

19 May 2018 || 2 min read

In a recent panel Friday at the Myriad Festival in Brisbane, Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter made some outspoken comments on the future of flying cars, and informed the public as the Chief Entrepreneur of Queensland that flying cars will happen, and will be in Australia within 10 years. Here’s some of the (notable) commentary: On the timeline for flying cars...

Read More
Cora in New Zealand

BRS Aerospace is coordinating with eVTOL manufacturers and regulators to add one of the most sought-after safety features to this new class of flying craft – a parachute recovery system. Parachute recovery systems have already become popularized through wide-spread inclusion on light general aviation aircraft, such as Cirrus, and have saved 380 lives in the process. Now, BRS aims to...

Read More
BRS Aerospace Recovery System

Uber is determined to make flying taxis a reality by 2023 – and the FAA is determined to make sure that they do so in a safe manner. At Uber’s Elevate Summit 2018, FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell spoke with Uber’s Chief Product Officer, Jeff Holden, on the path to certification, Elwell’s involvement in aviation, and the path for both...

Read More
Cora Flying Car

Elevate Summit Day 2 Recap

10 May 2018 || 2 min read

The Uber Elevate Summit 2018 has concluded at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, CA – here’s everything that you should know from the second day of the conference about the flying car industry: Uber Announces Call for First International City to participate in UberAIR Celina Mikolajcak, Uber’s Director of Engineering, Energy Storage Systems, and Alan Dowdell, VP of Business...

Read More
EmbraerX Concept

UberAIR Skyport: Gannett Fleming Concept

09 May 2018 || 4 min read

UberAIR announced 6 different architecture firms’ concepts at the Uber Elevate Summit on Wednesday. Gannett Fleming’s concept, called SKYPORT by Gannett Fleming, features modular components, each called”The PAW”, that allow scalability. SKYPORT by Gannett Fleming was featured prominently during the Summit, and for good reason. The video below provides a fairly comprehensive overview of the SkyPort, including some of its...

Read More
Gannet Fleming Concept SkyPort

The Future of eVTOL Energy Systems

09 May 2018 || 4 min read

At Uber Elevate Summit 2018, Celina Mikolajcak, Uber‘s Director of Engineering, Energy Storage Systems, and Alan Dowdell, VP of Business Development, ChargePoint Discussed eVTOL Energy Systems in an interview with TransportUP. ChargePoint and Uber are partners on the UberAIR initiative, where ChargePoint intends on supplying charging infrastructure and connectors for Uber’s aircraft that will rapidly recharge UberAIR vehicles between flights....

Read More
ChargePoint Connector External Features

Uber Elevate’s Summit 2018 Day 1 is winding down – here’s a quick overview of the biggest announcements and news from the day: Uber announced their partnership with Karem Aircraft, and unveiled an eVTOL dubbed the “Butterfly”: Embraer Released their EmbraerX concept: Pipistrel also released a concept eVTOL that will be part of a “family” of eVTOL aircraft: E-one Moli...

Read More
Butterfly Collaboration eVTOL

Uber Elevate Summit 2018 Preview

07 May 2018 || 3 min read

This year’s Uber Elevate Summit marks the second annual gathering focused on advancing the flying car and taxi market. The Summit also promises to yield a number of exciting announcements on recent developments from representatives at companies such as Embraer, Pipistrel, Bell Flight, Aurora Flight Sciences, and ChargePoint. Be sure to refer back to transportup.com throughout the course of the...

Read More
Uber Logo
Interested in TransportUP? Let's Talk.

Contact Us