FutureFlight

The Pathways to the Future of Transportation document was published on July 28, 2020, by the Non-Traditional & Emerging Transportation Technology Council (NETT) established by the U.S. Department for Transportation in 2019. At face value, the document appears to do little more than lay more groundwork for the NETT Council's mission of bringing innovators and entrepreneurs together to advance the adoption of new transportation technology. 

Even allowing for the hopefully short-term reduction of airline traffic volumes due to the Covid-19 pandemic, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will triple by 2050, according to aviation consultancy Roland Berger. In fact, current annual levels of 1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions had appeared likely to quadruple by 2050, but now emission levels are set to fall during 2020, followed by some “muted growth” anticipated for the next few years, according to a new study released by the company on July 21 during the FIA Connect event.

In his cover letter accompanying the FAA’s first version of the concept of operations (ConOps) for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), Steve Bradford, the agency’s chief scientist for architecture and NextGen development, admits that the document is a “work in progress.” Given the content and the reaction to it, that perhaps is an understatement. 

It takes a village and expert use of long-lens cameras to reveal all of the secrets that would-be eVTOL aircraft developers trying to keep under wraps. So kudos to The Drive's Tyler Rogoway and aviation photographer Jack Beyer for blowing the cover of what appears to be part of Toyota's plans to expand in this sector.

Deloitte has updated its research into consumer attitudes to urban air mobility (UAM), and the bottom line is that the industry has a ways to go in convincing the public that the concept has a viable future. The results are mixed but overall survey respondents came out at around 50/50 on the following key questions: is UAM a viable solution to roadway congestion and are passenger-carrying, autonomous aircraft safe?

Public acceptance of flights in autonomous electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is increasingly emerging as a key enabler, or a potential stumbling block, for urban air mobility. So far, however, there has been little in the way of published research gauging where public attitudes currently stand on this issue.

Burt Rutan has been at the cutting edge of aircraft design for decades. When he sold his Scaled Composites company in 2011, many might have assumed he was transitioning to a well-earned retirement. Then, at an October 20, 2019, event to mark the 40th anniversary of the first flight of his Long EZ aircraft, 76-year-old Rutan let slip that he's working on a design for an eVTOL aircraft. As if realizing that he might have said too much, he declined to provide his audience, and a select group of reporters, with any further details.

Self-driving cars are already "a thing," albeit a not-widely-accepted one in the wake of some well-documented mishaps. But Sebastian Thrun, founder and CEO of Kitty Hawk, is convinced that autonomous operations will take off more quickly and comprehensively in the air than on the ground. He would say that, of course, given Kitty Hawk's ambitions in this area through its partnership with Boeing NeXt to develop the Cora eVTOL aircraft.

Multi-disciplinary clusters of academics worldwide are the engine room for many of the key areas of technology advancement underpinning the development of electric aircraft. One such research and development hub is the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering, where associate professor Anubhav Datta is leading a team developing new approaches to lightweight electrical storage to go on board aircraft.

Industry standardization body ASTM International is a significant contributor to the complex collaboration between industry and government to establish the foundational standards needed to allow eVTOL aircraft operations to be conducted safely. This article in ASTM Standardisation News provides granular detail as to how these efforts are coming together.

ASTM experts from across the aviation industry are working on specialist committees to tackle complex issues relating to aircraft systems, autonomous flight, and personnel needs for urban air mobility, among other topics.