News

The EAA AirVenture VTOL Adventure

• 30 Aug 2018 01:28 PM
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Vertiflite attended the world’s largest annual gathering of aviation enthusiasts in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to report on the latest developments in vertical flight for the experimental and general aviation market.

The Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture fly-in and convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was a showcase for conventional rotorcraft and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, with no fewer than eight prototype eVTOL aircraft displayed by five innovative companies and more than 50 rotorcraft showcased by manufacturers, operators and collectors.

Electric VTOL is Taking Off. Beware the Hyper-Hype Cycle.

• 30 Aug 2018 11:50 AM
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One of the reasons why members of the nascent helicopter community decided in early 1943 to establish the American Helicopter Society was because they didn’t feel that they were being taken seriously by the aviation establishment.

Bell Files eVTOL Patent

• 27 Aug 2018 03:28 PM
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Bell filed for a patent entitled “Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Aircraft” on Jan. 2, 2018, and it was published July 26, 2018. Aviation Week’s Graham Warwick noted (in "Does Patent Application Reveal Bell’s eVTOL Design?, The Weekly Of Business Aviation, Aug. 13, 2018) that it “may provide clues to Bell’s design for [its eVTOL] air taxi.”

UrbanAero Launches Full-Scale Development

• 20 Aug 2018 03:25 PM
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Urban Aeronautics has launched full-scale development of its CityHawk hybrid-electric VTOL (see Vertiflite, Jan/Feb 2018). The vehicle will be developed at Urban’s subsidiary, Metro Skyways Ltd, with first manned flights in 2021–22, followed by full certification to US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) FAR Part 27 requirements

VerdeGo Becomes eVTOL Propulsion Provider

• 15 Aug 2018 03:23 PM
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Florida-based VerdeGo Aero has refocused its efforts from developing its PAT200 tandem tiltwing eVTOL aircraft towards developing powertrain and controls solutions. The company announced on Aug. 1 that it was launching its Integrated Distributed Electric Propulsion (IDEP) systems to be a supplier for other eVTOL developers.

Kitty Hawk Flyer Enters Service

• 12 Jul 2018 08:18 AM
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The recent explosion of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft development has engaged a wide audience of engineers, technologists, enthusiasts and investors, as well as the general public. (News about and details on more than 100 electric VTOL designs can be found in the Vertical Flight Society’s online directory: www.eVTOL.news.)

GoFly Enters Phase II

• 10 Jul 2018 08:54 AM
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The goal of the GoFly Prize is to foster the development of safe, quiet, ultra-compact, near-VTOL personal flying devices capable of flying twenty miles while carrying a single person. Here’s the story so far, nine months into the two-year competition. On June 14, the GoFly Prize announced the 10 award recipients after its Phase I competition.

EHang Makes More 184s and 216s

• 01 Jul 2018 02:01 PM
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At the Future of Transportation conference in Cologne, Germany, on a panel chaired by VFS Executive Director Mike Hirschberg, Derrick Xiong, co-founder and chief marketing officer of EHang, provided new insights into the company’s Autonomous Aerial Vehicle.

Canada Invests in VTOL Technology

• 20 Jun 2018 12:13 PM
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Canada is providing CAD$49.5M (USD$37.7M) in financial support for a major technology demonstration program (TDP) designed to advance five key technologies to support the development of urban air taxis, conventional helicopters and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The Government of Canada announced on April 16 during International Aerospace Week in Montréal that it is providing the funding to an aerospace consortium of 20 industry and academic partners led by Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd (BHTCL).

Thinking Outside the Box Is Inside the Box at Aurora Flight Sciences

• 01 May 2018 09:16 AM
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On Nov. 8, 2017, The Boeing Company acquired Aurora Flight Sciences, which bills itself as “an innovative technology company which strives to create smarter aircraft through the development of versatile and intuitive autonomous systems.” Or to put it another way, a company whose entire existence is thinking outside the box.