TransportUP

Audi and other European car makers, including Italian design firm Italdesign, are in a battle for flying taxi supremacy against Uber. They announced in May the creation of the Urban Air Mobility division – a dedicated division in Ingolstadt tasked with testing flying taxis.

Boeing has countered this week by announcing the development of the Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The center will be located on the grounds of MIT’s mixed-use district.

Boeing’s Aerospace and Autonomy Center at MIT

The center’s mission is to design, build, and test autonomous aircraft, and work will be conducted by both Boeing employees and those from Aurora Flight Sciences – an MIT spinout.

Aurora Flight Sciences was purchased by Boeing in November of 2017, and is already specializing in autonomous aircraft design. Aurora uses algorithmic design processes to optimize for the best result.

Greg Hyslop, Boeing CTO, stated: “Boeing is leading the development of new autonomous vehicles and future transportation systems that will bring flight closer to home. By investing in this new research facility, we are creating a hub where our engineers can collaborate with other Boeing engineers and research partners around the world and leverage the Cambridge innovation ecosystem.”

Boeing did not provide any details on its eVTOL projects, while Aurora, on the other hand, is already developing several vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) projects, including their eVTOL concept and LightningStrike XV-24A.

Why it’s important: Continued investment by large aerospace firms in the infrastructure necessary to design, build, and test flying taxis is critical for the sustaining growth of the industry. The location for Boeing and Aurora Flight Science’s new research center at MIT is fitting – Aurora Flight Sciences spun out of students at MIT. Additionally, an investment in developing commercial real estate is a large expense, indicating the confidence with which Boeing and Aurora Flight Sciences have for moving forward in the industry.

Source

• Autoevolution

“Money is pouring into start-ups making spacecraft, aircraft, or building businesses around them; this year, financial data firm Preqin tracked venture investment totaling $927 million in the sector through July 26.”

Due to technological advances that allow for more streamlined designing and prototyping of complex aerospace systems, investments are being driven more and more frequently in larger amounts to support the rapid development of new innovative technologies.

Among the many aerospace startups being invested in, flying cars have gained a large amount of traction. An article published in The Verge detailed how Google co-Founder Larry Page owns not one, but three flying car companies.

The flow of capitol is indicative of even greater investor sentiment and confidence than was present in the 1990’s – but since the majority of new aerospace companies are privately held and youthful, it’s hard to predict with much certainty the long-term financial performance of the industry.

Visionaries like Page have the means to support multiple aerospace start ups regardless of external funding or approval – the only hindrance from progress being their own decision to stop work. However, given the increasingly competitive and filled flying car industry, all signs hint at ramping up development and testing to deploy first. Page’s lesser-known flying car company, Opener, made a huge splash as video of the Opener BlackFly eVTOL was released to the public for the first time.

Why it’s important: While general public approval is helpful for implementation of aerospace systems at scale, investor sentiment is equally as critical during periods of development of complex technological systems. All indications at the moment point towards positive sentiment and continued investment in the flying car arena.

Source

• Quartz

While much fanfare has accompanied the unveiling of the Bell Air Taxi in the past months, hardly any insight has been provided into the technical design process or details of the air taxi.

Bell is a partner in the Uber Elevate initiative, who is targeting a 2023 launch. Accordingly, Bell needs to have their air taxi ready for testing in two years.

Before working on Bell’s Air Taxi, Kyle Heironimus, an electric-propulsion lead at Bell, worked on the UH-1 Iroquois, V-22 Osprey and the 505 Jet Ranger X. Here are some excerpts from an interview with Avionics International that describe the design process and details at Bell:

Walk me through your day-to-day at Bell.

I currently function as the Bell air taxi electric-propulsion lead. My typical day is spent interfacing with our multi-disciplinary team within Bell and with a wide range of typical and non-typical aviation suppliers. Right now, I see my job as helping to pull together all of the various technical experts required to bring a hybrid electric propulsion system to life.

Explain the strategy behind the plan to put hybrid-electric propulsion on the air taxi.

We see the flexibility that a hybrid-electric system provides as necessary to build an aircraft that meets the full range of missions that we are going to fly. Of course, battery electric VTOL aircraft are already flying; however, their capabilities are significantly limited by the batteries available today. Simply put, today’s batteries are too heavy for a meaningful VTOL mission. We believe that demonstrating a hybrid-electric propulsion system positions us and our partners to take advantage of the best of current propulsion technology as well as new emerging electric motor and control technology.

Is Bell developing all of the avionics in house or working with vendors?

Bell is working with a variety of industry partners, including our own in-house experts to evaluate the best path forward for the platform. We certainly aren’t the only ones who want to shape this new market.

Project five years from now: What will be the most significant change?

From my standpoint, increased power and energy density of electric propulsion and control components will be key to unlocking eVTOL. I certainly don’t hold the crystal ball, but in five years I hope to see components and systems reaching weights that are not only economically viable for specific missions, but are so good that they supplant legacy solutions in cost, weight and performance. Bell is well on its way to designing and certifying eVTOL aircraft.

Why it’s important: Bell is a leader in the vertical flight industry, but has kept most of the developments of their Air Taxi under wraps. The only public reveal to date is of their proposed cabin concept, which drew a large amount of attention. If the Uber Elevate goal of 2023 is to be met, expect Bell unveiling their Air Taxi by 2020, at the latest – the quantity of flight testing required to certify and commercially implement these air taxis in urban areas across the world is almost as large a task as successfully designing and manufacturing them.

Learn more about the Bell Air Taxi here.

Source

• Avionics International