Bell Helicopter To Unveil Urban Air Taxi at CES 2018

Prototype electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and UAS and related technology swarmed this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last month.

Bell Helicopter unveiled its concept for an urban air-taxi at CES. The four-passenger design will offer full connectivity including video conferencing capability. “The future of urban air taxi is closer than many people realize. We believe in the positive impact our design will have on addressing transportation concerns in cities worldwide,” said Bell CEO Mitch Snyder. “While we are laser-focused on the passenger experience and eager to share with the public, Bell continues to develop our air-taxi design to provide safe, reliable transportation services to the world.” During CES, attendees experienced an augmented reality simulator inside the air taxi cabin designed to portray a variety of flight scenarios including cross-city day and night trips.

Last year, global ride-sharing service Uber and Bell announced plans to partner and accelerate the eventual large-scale deployment of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. Scott Drennan, Bell director of engineering innovation, said his company’s design would be robust enough to fly 2,000 hours per year; be “modular, adaptable, and scalable”; be able to use a variety of powerplants; have both civil passenger and military logistics applications; and likely be certified under the FAA’s powered-lift category, a new section of the Federal Aviation Regulations developed for tiltrotors. Uber believes urban air taxis can be operated for a cost near $1.32 per mile, about one-third of the price of operating a turbine helicopter.

Volocopter announced that its 2X eVTOL flew Intel CEO Brian Krzanich on a remotely piloted passenger flight in December. “That was fantastic. That was the best flight I have ever had. Everybody will fly one of these someday,” said Krzanich after completing the flight, which took place inside a German exhibition hall. Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, noted that the Volocopter “is a flying super computer creating a pleasant and safe ride.”

The Volocopter is designed to operate as an autonomous air taxi and leverages Intel microprocessor and other technology in its flight control solutions with redundancy and safety features. Dozens of microprocessors monitor the environment for turbulences, winds, etc. and send signals in milliseconds to the rotors. These can react and perform the slightest adjustments instantly due to their battery powered electric motors. The Volocopter made its first manned flight in 2011 and recently completed autonomous flights in Dubai.

In 2016 the German aviation authority granted Volocopter provisional licensing for a two seat-model, and in 2017 the aviation start-up entered into an agreement with RTA Dubai. Investors in the company include Intel and automaker Daimler. Intel has made significant investments in the drone industry with its UAV group, which develops products and software designed to promote further use of Intel technology by promoting drone development. The Intel Aero Compute Board drone system fits onto an electronics package the size of a playing card and runs a Linux operating system and Intel’s RealSense technology.

During the show, Boeing unveiled a prototype unmanned eVTOL cargo air vehicle (CAV) capable of carrying payloads of up to 500 pounds. The CAV is powered by an electric propulsion system and eight contra-rotating blades allowing for vertical flight. It measures 15 feet long, 18 feet wide, four feet tall, and weighs 747 pounds.

The CAV will be used to test and evolve Boeing's autonomy technology for future aerospace vehicles. Boeing HorizonX, with its partners in Boeing Research & Technology, led the development of the CAV prototype, which complements the eVTOL passenger air vehicle prototype in development by Aurora Flight Sciences, a company acquired by Boeing late last year. The CAV was developed in less than three months under this leadership by a project team of engineers and technicians across the company and successfully completed initial flight tests at Boeing Research & Technology's Collaborative Autonomous Systems Laboratory in Missouri.

"Our new CAV prototype builds on Boeing's existing unmanned systems capabilities and presents new possibilities for autonomous cargo delivery, logistics and other transportation applications," said Steve Nordlund, Boeing HorizonX vice president. "The safe integration of unmanned aerial systems is vital to unlocking their full potential. Boeing has an unmatched track record, regulatory know-how and a systematic approach to deliver solutions that will shape the future of autonomous flight."

Workhorse brought its SureFly hybrid eVTOL to CES and intended to fly it there, but was shut down by opening day rain. The company said the two-seat prototype would fly “soon.”

In early January, Workhorse received an experimental airworthiness certificate and approval for the flight from the FAA. SureFly, the world's first electric hybrid helicopter, features a drone-like octocopter design, a two-person, 400-pound payload capacity and a range of approximately 70 miles. The aircraft is powered by a fossil-fueled generator engine linked to a parallel bank of battery packs offering redundant power and eliminating the need for long battery recharging between flights. The electrical system powers motors linked to four propeller arms, each with two contra-rotating propellers. The batteries can power the motors if the generator fails. The airframe also has a ballistic parachute. SureFly was unveiled at the Paris Air Show in June 2017. The company is currently accepting SureFly pre-orders at www.workhorse.com.

In late December 2017, Workhorse announced its intention to spin off SureFly into a separate company. Under terms of the deal, Workhorse plans to issue $5.75 million worth of notes that it anticipates can be exchanged for preferred stock and common stock warrants of SureFly, Inc. with a valuation of $33 million. The warrants will be exercisable into a number of shares of common stock equal to 30 percent of the shares issuable upon conversion of the convertible preferred stock and have an exercise price equal to 125 percent of the conversion price on the convertible preferred stock. Last year Workhorse executive Patrick Connors told AIN that he expected the SureFly certification program to cost around $40 million and that individual SureFly aircraft would have a target price of $200,000.

Safety and Regulations

Drone software provider Kittyhawk said it is adding an automated flight system to its Flight Deck feature that works in conjunction with secure, encrypted streaming live audio and video. The new automation features allow operators to plan missions in the Kittyhawk mobile application and then execute the entire flight from takeoff to landing with unlimited waypoints. The app has incorporated safety features to ensure that operators are not able to initiate an automated flight to a place beyond the range of the radio and drone, and the software uses the geolocation of the operator to show only flights that are possible to complete.

Kittyhawk said the new features in its mobile app have a variety of practical applications such as enabling law enforcement to access video and audio feeds while automatically flying a scene perimeter and allowing filmmakers to get more precise shots with consistent speed and altitude. “Enterprise customers are constantly asking the Kittyhawk platform to do more and more across the entire workflow,”  said company CEO Jon Hegranes. The automated flight feature is the first of several new features the company plans to unveil in 2018.

The FAA also made news at CES, announcing that the number of U.S.-registered drones with the agency topped one million in January. It includes 878,000 hobbyists, who receive one identification number for all the drones they own, and 122,000 commercial, public and other drones, which are individually registered. Registration is required by law and the FAA maintains that the registration process helps educate drone operators who are new to aviation by having them agree to the FAA’s operating rules; and increases airspace security by identifying drones with their owner.

Registration was originally required under the FAA’s small drone registration rule effective December 21, 2015. The rule provided that aircraft weighing more than 0.55 pounds (250 grams) and less than 55 pounds (approximately 25 kilograms), including payloads such as onboard cameras, must be registered. While that rule was overturned by a 2017 federal court decision, it was reinstated in the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last December. “The tremendous growth in drone registration reflects the fact that they are more than tools for commerce and trade, but can [also] save lives, detect hazardous situations, and assist with disaster recovery," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, speaking at CES. “The challenge is to remove unnecessary hurdles to enable the safe testing and integration of this technology into our country’s airspace.”