Category Filtering: 'xti-aircraft'
Recognizing the need for fast, economical, point-to-point cargo and logistics transportation, VerdeGo Aero in Daytona Beach, FL and XTI Aircraft Company in Denver, CO have partnered together on the TriFan 200 program. XTI Aircraft, a leader in next-generation VTOL aircraft, is developing the TriFan 200, a configuration similar to its larger TriFan 600 VTOL passenger aircraft already under development.
Can hybrid-electric propulsion improve the efficiency, economics and noise of rotorcraft until better batteries come along?
XTI Aircraft Company is playing the long game with the ongoing development of its TriFan 600 hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
In the last year, the company — based at Centennial Airport near Denver, Colorado — refined the aircraft’s design, launched flight testing of its large-scale Proof of Concept (POC) vehicle, revitalized its funding program, partnered with a major engine maker, obtained two patents, strengthened upper management and now has a total of 81 orders for its unique aircraft.
XTI Aircraft Company announced on Sept.16 that it was invited to and participated in a large investment trade fair in Guizhou Province, China. A draft agreement was signed regarding the formation of a joint venture in China that could provide the means to assemble and support the TriFan 600 aircraft in Guizhou Province, China, and to market and sell the TriFan 600 in a specified geographical area.
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.
XTI Aircraft announced on Feb. 20 that it was on schedule and on budget as it completed the ducts and fans for its 60% scale flying prototype of the TriFan 600 aircraft, and moved toward ground testing those components (see “XTI Aircraft Refines Its TriFan 600 VTOL BizJet,” Vertiflite March/April 2018).
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.
Uber said that by the time flight demonstration programs begin in 2020, they will have to validate that they have mitigated the three biggest risks: efficient flights (airspace acceptance), noise (community acceptance) and safety (passenger acceptance). Note that Uber is not funding the development of the aircraft, but is helping to facilitate connections between investors and developers.
An aviation gold rush is on. The belief that advances in electric propulsion and autonomy technologies are making cheap, quiet and even fully automated air taxis as feasible as automatic elevators is fueling a frenzy of design and development of small electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Some e-VTOLs are already flying. Others will be soon. Many more are on the drawing boards.
