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Vertical Flight Society Executive Director Mike Hirschberg is providing an overview of eVTOL promise and progress in a briefing, "The Electric VTOL Revolution," to the 44th European Rotorcraft Forum (ERF) at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands on Sept. 19, 2018.
On July 12, Opener shocked the world by announcing that its BlackFly was the first US- and Canadian-qualified fixed-wing ultralight eVTOL. The company showed stunning video and off-the-charts performance. Here’s the inside story.
On Oct. 5, 2011, Canadian engineer and entrepreneur Marcus Leng flew an eight-rotor tandem-wing electric aircraft from the front yard of his house and became convinced that electric vertical flight had a great future. This aircraft — initially dubbed the “SkyKar Rebel” — was apparently the world’s first fixed-wing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flight (see www.evtol.news/evtol-timeline).
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.
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 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.”
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.
The CAFE Foundation held its 2018 Electric Aircraft Symposium at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh's Alumni Welcome and Conference Center on Saturday and Sunday July 21-22, 2018, in conjunction with the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. The title of the CAFE EAS was "The Future of Flight: Electric Aviation Technologies and Opportunities."
A number of eVTOL aircraft were on display at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA, in July 2018. Ken Swartz, VFS Board Member and President of Aeromedia Communications, took lots of photos and made a presentation on The Electric VTOL Revolution (8 MB pdf) on July 25 as part of the EAA Forums.
The Electric VTOL News™ now has more than 100 aircraft cataloged in the most extensive directory of electric and hybrid-electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft in the world. Launched in April 2017 after the first Uber Elevate Summit, the directory grew at a rate of about one aircraft per week during the first year, but this has now accelerated to an average rate of two aircraft per week as more aircraft are unveiled and new actors join The Electric VTOL Revolution.
The Vertical Flight Society now has more than 25 hours of online videos related to electric VTOL aircraft and technology.
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