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Volocopter is the New Alternative to Flying Cars
03 April 2018 || 2 min read
Volocopter may be the new alternative to the flying car – and it has flight tests under its belt to prove it. The 16-rotor manned eVTOL aircraft (dubbed the VC200) is built by German manufacturer Volocopter and tested in Karlsruhe. The VC200 is estimated to fly at an altitude of around 2km with payloads of up to 450kg. The Volocopter VC200...
Flying Taxi Technology has arrived, says Smart City Panel
30 March 2018 || 2 min read
Experts from across the industry of aviation, aerospace, and drones joined at the Smart Cities Connect Conference & Expo in Kansas City on March 28 to discuss the future of the flying taxi market. The panelists included Mark Zannoni, research director for International Data Corporation, Jonathan McGory, general counsel for the Cleveland Airport System, and Bill Goodwin, VP of Policy...
Siemens Showcases New Electric Propulsion Technology
29 March 2018 || < 1 min read
Siemens released their electric propulsion technology at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Chicago, marking another entry to the electric propulsion field by the telecommunications company. The system’s claimed total output is 260 kilowatts, which is “five times more than comparable drive systems” according to Siemens’ website. The weight to provide that power is just under 50 kilograms....
Virtual Reality Flying Taxi Testing? Udacity Says Yes
28 March 2018 || < 1 min read
Udacity is planning to offer students a virtual-reality flying car experience geared toward “systems thinking, fleet management, and smart city planning”. The programming will include “Udacity Universe” which allows students to control their flying cars and taxis in a virtual environment. This virtual environment even simulates people and objects for added realism. Why it’s important: Udacity has been a leader of free...
Flying Taxi “Vertiports” Will Be Constructed by Blade
23 March 2018 || 2 min read
Helicopter charter company Blade has raised $38 million to build flying taxi infrastructure from Airbus and Real Estate Investment firm Colony NorthStar. The Series B fundraising also included Lerer Hippeau Ventures and LionTree Ventures. The funds raised in the Series B round will be used to construct “vertiports” which are similar to helipads, but designed for flying taxis. Blade and Airbus are...
Geely’s Involvement in the Flying Car Industry
22 March 2018 || 2 min read
Hangzhou, China – based Geely Automotive may seem to be just another well-performing car manufacturer. In reality, their stake and exposure to the flying car market is much stronger and more developed than many automakers. Having posted growth in 2017 of 108%, Geely is expanding extremely rapidly, and a number of acquisitions have accompanied this expansion. First, it was the...
AeroMobil Unveils 5.0 VTOL Concept Flying Car
21 March 2018 || 2 min read
Slovakian AeroMobil unveiled plans for their flying car (dubbed the 5.0 VTOL) Wednesday, which intends to take off vertically using tilt-rotors and then transition to forward moving flight. The 5.0 VTOL can also drive on roads, thanks to its conventional automotive chassis arrangement. Here’s an artist’s rendering of the 5.0: The 5.0 is the successor to the 3.0 STOL and...
Japanese Government Launches Flying Car Study
20 March 2018 || < 1 min read
The Japanese Economic, Trade and Industry Ministry began studies on Monday to examine putting flying cars to practical use. An advisory panel will conduct discussions on integrating flying cars to the current transportation network and develop a roadmap for their application by 2020. Additionally, the ministry intends to facilitate public-private cooperation to overcome any of the challenges that integration of...
Bell Targets 2025 Entry to Market of their Flying Taxi
19 March 2018 || < 1 min read
Bell Helicopters has stated that their new concept eVTOL flying taxi should enter the personal urban transportation market by 2025. While Bell showcased an image of its four-place passenger pod, no hints of a planned propulsion system have been released to date. Bell’s entry to the flying car market marks yet another instance of an aerospace company entering the lucrative...
Dufour Aerospace Unveils aEro2; Continues Advancement of Electric Propulsion Systems
17 March 2018 || 2 min read
The Swiss-based team that brought the aEro1 electric aerobatic aircraft demonstrator to fruition has recently unveiled its plans for the aEro2. The aEro2 is claimed to be a two-seat tilt wing configuration with range of up to 120km (75 miles) on purely electric power. With a backup Auxiliary Power Unit, the aEro2 may fly as far as 800 km (500...
Uber and Embraer Partner to Bring Flying Taxis to Market by 2023
16 March 2018 || 2 min read
Uber and Embraer announced a partnership in May to bring flying taxis to market by 2024, and recently at South by Southwest in Austin, TX they jointly issued a statement that their estimate has been advanced to 2023. Uber confirmed that the planned autonomous flying taxi would travel at 150 miles per hour, six times faster than the 25 mph...
Airis Aerospace Launches Concept Flying Taxi
15 March 2018 || < 1 min read
Bermuda-based Airis Aerospace announced its concept all-electric eVTOL that intends on seating five passengers recently. The concept eVTOL has performance goals of transporting five people up to 200 miles at speeds of up to 175 miles per hour by using “dual coaxial lift fans and eight articulating thrusters for winged flight”. Airis also stated that their concept will include ballistic...
Watch: Kittyhawk Announces Sister Brand Cora
13 March 2018 || < 1 min read
Larry Page backed Kittyhawk Aero recently announced a sister brand, Cora, that intends on producing an “everyday air taxi”. Cora is currently working with the New Zealand government on manufacturing the vehicle and flight tests have already taken place. The timeline for entry to service is “somewhere around five years” said Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun – but that could...
Embry-Riddle Supports Record-Breaking UAV Package Delivery
10 March 2018 || < 1 min read
A team of faculty, students, and staff from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, along with FAA regulators and Volans-i UAS systems engineers helped support the longest range UAV package delivery in the United States to date in Austin, TX. Team Roadrunner, as they were called, “consisted of the FAA-designated Nevada UAS Test Site (Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems), Volans-i UAS, Latitude UAS,...
Audi joins Porsche in Pool of Automakers Involved in eVTOL Transport
08 March 2018 || < 1 min read
Audi recently joined the ranks of automakers in the eVTOL transportation industry with its announcement at the 88th Geneva Motor Show that it would be collaborating with Airbus and Italdesign on the Pop.Up eVTOL transport. The Pop.Up was shown at the previous year’s Motor Show, but without Audi branding on certain car components. Now, Audi has included their expertise on...
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