News

Advanced VTOL Demonstrators Accelerate Full Tilt

• 26 Feb 2018 10:58 AM
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Joby Aviation, Inc., which went silent in late 2016 shortly after telling Vertiflite that it would fly in early 2017 (“The Demand for On-Demand Mobility, Vertiflite, Jan./Feb. 2017), revealed on Feb. 1, 2018 that it is well advanced in its flight testing of its four-seat S4. Although the company has still not revealed any images of the S4 since the AHS-led 2nd Transformative Vertical Flight Workshop in August 2015 (shown), the company officially announced on Feb. 1 that it has been flying the eVTOL aircraft and that it is “now developing a commercial version of that design and preparing that vehicle for certification.”

XTI Aircraft Refines its TriFan 600 VTOL BizJet

• 26 Feb 2018 10:38 AM
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Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) -capable aircraft other than helicopters are not yet part of business and commercial aviation fleets. But that could change someday. Although there is much work going on right now on fully-electric VTOL aircraft for the Uber Elevate mission and other intra-city applications (see “The eVTOL Is in the Details,” pg. 42), larger aircraft and longer distances will require hybrid-electric propulsion solutions in the foreseeable future.

Aviation Comes to the Consumer at CES 2018

• 21 Feb 2018 02:47 PM
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The Consumer Technology Association’s CES 2018 (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show) took place Jan. 9–12, 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Key themes at the largest technology exhibition in the world included the promise of 5G, smart cities, smart homes, vehicle technology, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality and technologies for consumers’ increasingly connected lives.

Turning Volts to VTOL

• 01 Jan 2018 08:57 PM
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The motors that propel and control electric vertical flight pose design, integration and certification challenges.

Commentary: 75 Years of Advancing Vertical Flight

• 30 Dec 2017 11:15 AM
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Seventy-five years ago, on Feb. 25, 1943, 26-year old Edward Katzenberger stood up in a high school gymnasium in Stratford, Connecticut, and called a meeting to order. At that meeting, the participants resolved to establish the American Helicopter Society.

Katzenberger, having joined Sikorsky Aircraft the year before, had been talking with other employees about establishing “The Sikorsky Helicopter Club.”

VerdeGo Green Team

• 22 Dec 2017 11:17 AM
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Erik Lindbergh, grandson of famed aviators Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, has founded VerdeGo Aero, “an innovative new aerospace company with a mission to provide the upcoming multi-billion-dollar urban transportation market with a safe, clean, and quiet hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can fly piloted or autonomously.”

Uber Elevate Joins NASA, Los Angeles

• 22 Dec 2017 11:12 AM
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Uber announced on Nov. 8 that it had signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA for “the development of new Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) concepts and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) that will enable safe and efficient operations of small UAS at low altitudes.” Uber’s participation in NASA’s UTM Project will aid the company in conducting demonstration flights of UberAIR in two US cities by 2020. 

Vahana Prepares for Liftoff

• 22 Dec 2017 10:57 AM
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In early November, A³ by Airbus — the Silicon Valley outpost of the Airbus Group — announced that it had moved its single-seat Vahana eVTOL demonstrator from “The Nest” in Santa Clara, California (shown above), to Pendleton, Oregon.

From Aerovelo to Kitty Hawk (sidebar)

• 06 Nov 2017 01:40 PM
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The Kitty Hawk engineering team is led by Dr. Todd Reichert (aerodynamics) and Cameron Robertson (structures).

While graduate students at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in Canada, Reichert and Robertson worked with Dr. James DeLaurier on the engine-powered “Big Flapper” ornithopter — an aircraft that generates thrust by flapping its wings like a bird, rather than using a propeller. 

Commentary: "Vertical Flight Saves Lives"

• 29 Oct 2017 02:28 PM
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Unprecedented earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, flooding and other natural disasters filled the news over the past several months. Equally prevalent were stories of vertical flight aircraft saving lives, protecting property and providing support after infrastructure was destroyed.