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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 System is to reduce the workload on pilots and provide a failsafe in case of an emergency. With the new Matrix Technology installed, pilots can program missions using a hand-held tablet computer. During the recent flight, the Autonomy Research Aircraft showcased its ability to take-off and land completely autonomously, fly while avoiding obstacles, and automatically determine safe landing zones.

“The reason this type of technology is important, is to reduce workload, the piloting workload and let the mission crews concentrate on what they’re really there to do, which is to either execute the MEDEVAC [medical evacuation], the close air support mission, or whatever they’re there to do,”–Dave Braden, Program Manager for the U.S. Marine Corps’ portion of the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

Unmanned testing of the aircraft this October came four years after DARPA began work on the project in 2014 in collaboration with Aurora Flight Sciences. Aurora’s solution to a computerized co-pilot placed a mechanical arm in the cockpit that could be retro-fitted to any aircraft.

Aurora Flight Sciences ultimately left the DARPA project to join Boeing on building it’s upcoming passenger air taxi. The Boeing/Aurora team is now one of the main partners working with Uber Elevate to begin flight testing it’s vehicles in major cities like LA and Dallas by 2020. CEO of Boeing Dennis Muilenberg claims that Boeing’s air taxi prototype should be in the air the next year. Read more news about the latest Boeing passenger VTOL updates. 

Why it’s important: Although Sikorsky’s recent test is military rather than commercial, it proves the viability of autonomous aircraft. Often throughout history, technology has been developed and used by the military before being accepted and integrated into public use. Such was the case with a great deal of the technology we see in today’s commercial airlines. Ultimately, progress in military VTOL autonomy is likely to mean progress for on-demand urban air mobility aircraft as well.

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 of additional aircraft.

Icon Aviation’s luxury air travel services

The order from Icon is XTI’s 64th pre-sale of the TriFan 600. This represents a total of about $416 million in gross revenues upon delivery.

The XTI TriFan 600 was built with the vision of creating a luxury private jet that could provide the same vertical take-off and landing benefits as a helicopter. Unlike many shorter range eVTOLs, the hybrid electric system in the TriFan gives it a top speed of 345mph with a range of 1,200 miles. The TriFan’s rotating fans allow it to land anywhere, and help it reach a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet in just ten minutes. Learn more about the TriFan 600.

Icon Aviation and XTI plan on partnering for the marketing and sales of the TriFan 600, with the twin goals of promoting the TriFan and expanding the business of Icon. Says Icon CEO Décio Galvão: “Icon and XTI have established a long-term relationship to collaborate on joint expansion of our respective businesses.”

Galvão hopes that the addition of the TriFan 600 will set Icon at the forefront of the growing luxury air travel industry.  In the announcement of the sale, he mentioned his vision to incorporate the TriFan into the Icon fleet as soon as XTI begins deliveries.

“We’re very pleased to be working with Icon,” said Robert LaBelle, Chief Executive Officer of XTI. “Icon is a recognized business aviation company leader in Brazil and throughout South America, and is an ideal partner and customer for the TriFan aircraft.

XTI has received increasing buyer interest in the TriFan 600 since it began its prototype program at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) trade show in Las Vegas last year. According to the company, tests of a 60% scale prototype should begin next month.

Why it’s important: The many pre-sales of the XTI TriFan prove the value proposition of vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can land anywhere. Moreover, the TriFan 600 shows that the future market for VTOLs will be multi-segmented. While the TriFan 600 represents the luxury/long distance side of the market, other companies like Lillium represent the more public side. As streets become more and more crowded and flight technologies become more and more advanced, the demand for personal VTOLs will inevitably grow.

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 specifications for future air taxis.

Carter Aviation’s newest Air Taxi eVTOL concept

Carter Aviation’s design is unique in that it is one of the only fixed wing eVTOLs to feature a single lift rotor rather than distributed electric propulsion (IDEP).  It does not directly address why it has made the single rotor design choice as opposed to IDEP but does note the “unparalleled safety of a high inertia rotor”.

It’s notable that the company first began prototyping as far back as 1998, and prides itself mainly on its’ SR/C™ technology which it claims has a higher speed, cruise efficiency, and safety than other similar aircraft.

Carter’s 1998 “Carter Copter” VTOL Prototype

The single-rotor design is particularly significant as one of the reasons for special for certification requirements in Europe is that many of the new aircraft concepts such as the Vertical Aerospace eVTOL use a “distributed lift/thrust units to generate powered lift and control”.

Carter’s ‘Electric Air Taxi’ design features a 5 passenger capacity, a 175 mph cruise speed,  and a battery range of 60 miles. These specifications are built to Uber Elevate requirements. It’s slowly turning rotor, a design edge unique to Carter, make it much quieter than traditional helicopters, and can act as a built-in parachute. The vehicle cruises between 1,000ft to 2,000ft and re-charge in 5 minutes.

A blueprint of the most important features of Carter’s air taxi

Why it’s import: Companies everywhere are gearing up to partner with Uber for future on-demand air mobility. Carter Aviation is a long-time expert in combining fixed wing and vertical lift technologies, and may an aircraft we one day see in operation with Uber. While Uber has selected certain companies to work with including Karem Aircraft, Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences, and Bell, and has developed its own models of potential aircraft, it may eventually take on other partners as well, or, as it needs more and more aircraft, outsource to companies like Carter.

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. The latest flight tests show the EHANG184 sporting the Ooredo Logo.

Flawless connectivity is crucial because EHANG ensures flight safety partially through low-altitude command center, which has ultimate control over whether or not the aircraft is allowed to take off.

The EHANG 184 is a true passenger drone in all aspects. Its quadcopter design comes with no fixed wing, and in the past, has even been called EHANG’s ‘giant drone.’ The EHANG is pilotless – it boasts full autonomy, simply relying on the passenger to input a destination location via touch screen.

EHANG is so confident in it’s software capabilities that EHANG184 doesn’t even have a joystick. The company has years of experience developing top-of-the-line consumer and commercial drones. The fully electric eVTOL developer guarantees safety by stating, “If one set of the power systems are operating abnormally, the vehicle can still operate a normal flight plan. If any components malfunction or disconnect, the aircraft will immediately land in the nearest possible area”.

Why It’s Important: EHANG is getting close to full flight feasibility. It was one of the first companies to reveal its design in 2016, and has been slowly making progress towards commercial flight. It has already conducted over 1,000 passenger flight tests in places like Dubai, China and other countries. It even has successfully completed safety tests in conditions of high heat, darkness, fog, and gale-force winds. All of these factors have made EHANG one of the most prominent urban air mobility companies, and one of the closest to full operation, barring regulations.

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 able to deliver up to 500kW.

Safran unveiled the motor at the NBAA ( National Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition) in Miami, Florida on October 15th. Four of the engines have already been tested in a full distributed propulsion hybrid-electric system on the ground similar to what might be found in hybrid electric aircraft.

Said Hervé Blanc, Vice President of Electrical Systems and Motors division at Safran,“We are proud to present this cutting-edge equipment that boasts top-level aeronautical performance from an electromagnetic, thermal, and mechanical perspective. With this range of engines, we are making a major strategic shift towards the development of VTOL and STOL aircraft, thus opening up promising new markets for Safran.”

The Safran line at the National Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Miami, Florida.

Safran has already well established its presence in the world of electric aviation by partnering with Zunum Aero in early October. Safran will develop the hybrid-to-electric powertrain for Zunum’s hybrid electric commercial airplane design. It is yet unknown whether Safran will provide the electric motors for the ZA10 as well.

The design of Zunum Aero’s ZA10

Why its important:

While the powertrain generator for the ZA10 is a 1700 shaft horsepower engine that has been used in traditional helicopters, the development of the ENGINeUS line indicates Safran’s intention to continue shifting towards electric propulsion. Safran is one of the industry leaders for aviation engines, and its move toward electric propulsion may indicate an industry-wide trend. With big players like Safran beginning to provide electric solutions, there should be plenty of options in the near future for urban air mobility vehicle developers to find propulsion suppliers and more.

On the left is the Terrafugia Transition. On the right is the Pal-V Liberty. These are the first two flying cars to reach the market.

Many VTOLs classify as ‘flying cars’ because they are personal-sized point to point vehicles that use the skies as their medium of travel. However, the Pal-V Liberty and the Terrafugia Transition can drive on the road as well as fly through the air.

Terrafugia, founded by graduates of MIT, has been working on the Transition for over a decade. The Transition’s wings fold to become as flush as possible with the body when the car is on the ground, and unfold for flight. Based in New England, Terrafugia was purchased by Volvo’s Chinese parent company, Geely, in 2017.

Terrafugia has begun taking pre-orders for the Transition, with a price around $300,000. The Transition’s main features include the ability to switch from drive mode to flight mode in under one minute, a range of about 400 miles, and a flight top speed of 100mph. On the ground, the Transition is powered by a hybrid engine with speeds also up to 100mph.

The Dutch company Pal-V’s ‘Liberty; is designed more like a personal helicopter. The Pal-V Liberty has three wheels, and long helicopter blades that fold into its body for its drive mode.

The base model of the Liberty is priced at €299,000, but €499,000 for the ‘Pioneer’ edition, which will be delivered first and will include all the available customizable options. Pal-V started taking pre-orders last month. Similar to Tesla, it is currently taking these orders through a queue reservation system, which requires a minimum $2,500 down payment. The Liberty has a top airspeed of 112mph, and top ground speed 100mph and a 100 gallon fuel tank, which is good for about four hours of flight time.

Both companies will begin delivering to customers in 2019.

Why It’s Important: While both of these vehicles are mainly recreational, they represent great steps for the era of personal aerial transportation. Not only will both these vehicles promote the acceptance of personal aircraft, they have also already struggled with many of the certification obstacles that air taxi VTOLs are currently experiencing.

A professional hip hop dancer in the Philippines decided he wanted to fly. So he learned engineering, and built a personal passenger drone. His design and prototype were picked up by Australian electric vehicle company Star8, which will bring the aircraft into commercial production.

The “Koncepto Millenya” is modeled like a sports car, and getting into it is meant to feel like getting into a Formula One car. The two share a streamlined and minimalistic body. The single-seater aircraft can fly up to 400 feet, though demonstration flights were conducted at about 25 feet. It can carry weights of about 150 pounds at a speed of about 40mph. This kind of flight, even at 25 feet, could mean huge improvements in places like the Philippines where traffic is extremely heavy and getting around is difficult.

Although 37 year-old Kyxz Mendiola had no professional or educational background in flight, he was able to learn everything he needed to know from the internet. His original passion was dancing, which led him into drone photography, which led him to become a flying car inventor. He began working on building drones in 2010, but felt that he didn’t really “crack the code” until around 2016.

“What started as curiosity became an obsession, I worked as a freelance filmmaker, taught dance and saved money for six years to be able to work on the drones. My designs had to be compact so that they could fit through the door, elevator and my small truck to take them out for testing.”

About a month ago, Mendiola’s design was noticed and picked up by electric vehicle developer Star8. Star8 currently makes solar-powered busses, ‘Tuks’, and scooters. It plans to carry on Mendiola’s design to enable a higher capacity of passengers and longer flight times.

Why it’s important: Urban Air Mobility solutions are beginning to appear all over the globe. While big traffic problems exist in the U.S, they are sometimes even worse in countries like the Philippines. Mendiola claims that an hour’s drive could be cut down to five minutes in his vehicle. Moreover, solutions like Mendiola’s prove that the kind of technology needed for this solutions is not only viable, but already possible to build.