Kitty Hawk’s Heaviside eVTOL is designed to be fast, small, and exceedingly quiet. Based in Palo Alto, CA, aircraft manufacturer Kitty Hawk has added a third vehicle to its developmental fleet. Project Heaviside joins the Flyer, a recreational vertical takeoff and landing rotorcraft with a single-seat configuration, and the Cora, Kitty Hawk’s two-passenger autonomous aircraft designed to fit the requirements of...
Kitty Hawk’s Heaviside eVTOL is designed to be fast, small, and exceedingly quiet.
Based in Palo Alto, CA, aircraft manufacturer Kitty Hawk has added a third vehicle to its developmental fleet. Project Heaviside joins the Flyer, a recreational vertical takeoff and landing rotorcraft with a single-seat configuration, and the Cora, Kitty Hawk’s two-passenger autonomous aircraft designed to fit the requirements of aerial mobility applications. Cora holds an experimental airworthiness certificate and is currently being tested in New Zealand, with the backing of Boeing as a recent strategic partner for the project.
Learn more about the Kitty Hawk Cora by visiting the Hangar.
Heaviside, named after renowned physicist and electrical engineer Oliver Heaviside, is designed to quickly takeoff and land from nearly any location, but at a noise level acceptable for urban and densely-populated environments. According to Kitty Hawk, the electric aircraft is “roughly 100 times quieter than a regular helicopter.” This would make it almost completely indistinguishable from the background noise of a city or suburb.
Kitty Hawk has not only been working on optimizing the Heaviside vehicle’s noise efficiency, however; it is also designed for rapid, low power output flights. This would make it capable of a 15-minute flight that uses less than half the energy of a car. Damon Vander Lind, the physicist and electrical engineer who has been leading the project, put a strong emphasis on the “land anywhere” feature for vehicles designed with aerial mobility in mind. This would in fact eliminate the need for additional structure or dedicated helipads, and in return facilitate the implementation of these vehicles at a more attainable cost.
The team of engineers has conducted tests directly comparing the decibel level output of their Heaviside prototype, which was been in development for two years, and a typical helicopter. The results showed that, while the maximum decibel level of around 85 was similar for both, the Heaviside aircraft maintained that noise output for seconds compared to minutes during the helicopter’s takeoff. During hovering flight, their prototype was heard at an impressive 40 dB, even less than the typical air-conditioned office. These tests are currently being conducted autonomously, as Heaviside still has a long regulatory road ahead of it. Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun has recuruited the expertise of Mike Huerta, who served as FAA Administrator from 2013 to 2018, to help navigate this process.
Credit // Kitty Hawk
Why it’s important: As one of the longstanding concerns in aerial mobility, noise has been placed at the forefront of Kitty Hawk’s focus for the Heaviside Project. With tangible comparisons to more noisy counterparts, the team’s prototype vehicle shows promising results and has potential to gain public acceptance for future implementation.
Kitty Hawk Aero announced their 2018 recap today, marking the conclusion of a packed year for the Larry Page-backed company. Included in the recap was the announcement that Cora has a Ballistic Parachute Recovery system, not unlike what Cirrus Aircraft use today to achieve their high safety records. Kitty Hawk has not previously disclosed that Cora has such a recovery...
Kitty Hawk Aero announced their 2018 recap today, marking the conclusion of a packed year for the Larry Page-backed company.
Included in the recap was the announcement that Cora has a Ballistic Parachute Recovery system, not unlike what Cirrus Aircraft use today to achieve their high safety records. Kitty Hawk has not previously disclosed that Cora has such a recovery system in place.
Additionally, the recap included some concrete numbers for Kitty Hawk’s accomplishments over the last year: more than 700 test flights conducted, with at least five Cora’s built (shown in their recap video) and one partnership signed with Air New Zealand. One of the main points that Kitty Hawk emphasized as part of their recap was that Cora was situated between the confluence of rotor, fixed-wing, and autonomous car disciplines.
The Kitty Hawk Cora eVTOL is powered by 12 rotors that are oriented vertically and mounted to the wings of the aircraft. One pusher-configured propellor provides for forward thrust during conventional flight. The estimated cruising speed of Cora is approximately 180 km/h, and a “triple redundant flight computer” system allows for safety of flight path control, even in the case that one or two computer systems malfunction.
Image Source // Kitty Hawk
Kitty Hawk’s recap video is here. To learn more about the Kitty Hawk Cora, visit The Hangar – the one page market overview of the urban aviation industry.
Why it’s important: Kitty Hawk’s year-in-review for 2018 contained a fair amount of information that was already known to the public, but a few announcements – such as the number of flight tests conducted, and the mention that the aircraft has a ballistic parachute recovery system – have not been shared before. With the quantity of flight testing complete and the quality of experience of the many team members of Kitty Hawk working on this product, expect 2019 to be full of continued certification and flight testing efforts.
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