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Electric/hybrid-electric propulsion enables new vertical flight aircraft configurations that have tremendous potential — but also significant challenges — to bring a radical transformation of air transportation for unmanned package delivery, unmanned logistics, personal air travel, air taxis, urban air mobility (UAM), regional air mobility (RAM) and many other missions.
The Vertical Flight Society held its 75th Annual Forum & Technology Display, the world's leading international event on vertical flight technology, on May 13-16, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This special 75th anniversary event spanned four days and included a record 280+ technical papers, plus 75 presentations and discussions by leaders in industry, the military, government agencies and academia. Forum 75 was a spectacular success with a record 1,400 attendees celebrated 75 years of advancing vertical flight. Find out more about Forum 75 proceedings papers, photos and more!
On May 8, 2019, XTI Aircraft announced that they had successfully completed the first test flights of its 65% scale prototype of the TriFan 600 VTOL aircraft.
On Monday, April 29, 2019, the Vertical Flight Society hosted a panel at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) XPONENTIAL 2019 trade show, with some 200 attendees.
The $2M GoFly Prize competition has completed its second phase and has so far received more interest than ever imagined. The idea to fund safe and innovative designs for a personal flying machine was a longtime dream for Gwen Lighter and she worked for years to get it started, including getting help from the Vertical Flight Society and other experts (see “AHS Supports GoFly!,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2017).
Bell and its partners talk about its Nexus eVTOL and the team’s approach to creating a revolutionary new type of aircraft.
As its name suggests, the Bell Nexus hybrid-electric VTOL is all about making connections.
Opener, the developer of the BlackFly electric Personal Aerial Vehicle (ePAV) for consumer travel, has appointed a president, Ben Diachun, the company announced on April 2. He will report to Marcus Leng, Opener founder and CEO. Diachun comes from Scaled Composites; Burt Rutan lauded Diachun, stating, “Ben Diachun’s spark of genius enhances any company he joins.... As an engineer, Ben played a key role in the creation of 14 revolutionary experimental aircraft, and as the President of Scaled Composites, he developed a talented team, explored new innovations and ensured our growth.”
A new short course on eVTOL Design has been added to the VFS video-on-demand educational series:
The Electric VTOL News™ eNewsletter started in 2016 as a means to inform the attendees of the VFS Transformative Vertical Flight Workshops and interested parties of news in the eVTOL world. Since then, it has grown to be a regular report on eVTOL aircraft, progress and developments. Since April 2017, it has also highlighted new aircraft in the World eVTOL Aircraft Directory and other resources on the eVTOL.news website.
In the five years since the Vertical Flight Society hosted its first “Transformative Vertical Flight Concepts Joint Workshop on Enabling New Flight Concepts through Novel Propulsion and Energy Architectures,” electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft have evolved from a wide-eyed futuristic concept into an emerging business within the global aerospace industry.
